Since at least half of the world’s population resides and works within coastal land, the coastal zone processes and resource management is of great economic and social importance. One of the fundamental issues for coastal city planners, researchers, managers, and engineers is the coastal city land-use suitability. Land-use suitability is the ability of a given type of land to support a defined use. Rapid urbanization and consequent haphazard growth of cities result in deterioration of infrastructure facilities, loss of agricultural land, water bodies, open spaces, and many micro-climatic changes. Hence, accurate data on coastal city hazards are essential and valuable tools for coastal planning and management, sustainable coastal development, coastal environment conservation, selection of a site for coastal city structures, and coastal resources. In this investigation, the Delphi and Analytical Hierarchy Process (D-AHP) Hybrid model and Geographic Information System (GIS) technique for Coastal Land-Use Assessment (CLUA) are mapped to detect the most suitable and unsuitable areas in the Kuala Terengganu coastal zone. Furthermore, this research offered information not only on the present urban land-use trend and established amenity status in Kuala Terengganu, but also on the suitability of land for the potential establishment of urban facilities for improved urban planning and appropriate decision-making. Using the D-AHP Hybrid model and GIS tool for coastal city management is broadly practical for government, policymakers, and planners to appropriately strategize and plan for the future of coastal cities in Malaysia and other analog coastal cities around the world.

Data from eight cruises spanning from 2002 to 2007 are used to investigate the seasonal changes in water characteristics and current circulation in southern South China Sea along the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The surveys were made during two intermonsoon periods which are during March/April and September/October. In addition, monthly sea surface temperature from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is used to provide wider coverage of spatial and temporal for seasonality study. Overall, the area shares different physical properties between the two seasons. During September/October temperature is lower and salinity is higher compared to the data during Mac/April/May. The current along the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia also shows seasonality, with dominant current flow southward during Mac/April and northward during September/October.

This study analyzes two wind-induced upwelling mechanisms, namely, Ekman transport and Ekman pumping that occur during the southwest monsoon. The results suggest that the coastline of the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia (ECPM) is affected by upwelling with spatiotemporal variations. Characterization of upwelling by using wind-induced upwelling indexes (UI_W) indicate the existence of favorable upwelling conditions from May to September. Upwelling intensity increased in May and peaked in August before declining in September, decreasing intensity from the southern tip towards the northern tip along the coastline of the ECPM. The existence of upwelling along the ECPM has resulted in an important difference between the SSTs of the inshore and the oceanic regions. Nonetheless, the use of the SST gradient between the inshore and the oceanic SSTs to characterize upwelling (UI_SST) was found to be unsuitable because the SST along the ECPM was affected by water advection from the Java Sea and incessant changes in the SST. In order to indicate the major contributor of wind-induced upwelling along the ECPM in terms of the spatiotemporal scale, a comparison between Ekman transport and Ekman pumping was drawn by integrating Ekman pumping with respect to the distance where the positive wind stress curl existed. The estimation of Ekman transport and Ekman pumping indicated that Ekman pumping played a major role in contributing towards upwelling in any particular month during the southwest monsoon along the entire coastline of the ECPM as compared to Ekman transport, which contributed towards more than half of the total upwelling transport. By dividing the ECPM into three coastal sections, we observed that Ekman pumping was relatively predominant in the middle and northern coasts, whereas both Ekman transport and Ekman pumping were equally prevalent in the southern coast.

Ariffin, E.H.; Sedrati, M., Akhir, M.F., Yaacob, R., and Husain, M.L,. 2016. Open Sandy Beach Morphology and Morphodynamic as Response to Seasonal Monsoon in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia. In: Vila-Concejo, A.; Bruce, E.; Kennedy, D.M., and McCarroll, R.J. (eds.), Proceedings of the 14th International Coastal Symposium (Sydney, Australia). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue, No. 75, pp. 1032 - 1036, Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Understanding beach morphology and morphodynamic changes is important in regions where there is a large amount of recreation and development. Kuala Terengganu beaches has many anthropogenic infastructure such as an extension to an airport runway similar in design to a groin which affect morphology and morphodynamics in response to seasonal monsoon storms. Seasonal monsoon storms are one of the most important controls on the cycle of erosion and accretion on beaches. Beach profile data and wave modelling were used to determine the response of five beaches o...