Determination of Physico_Chemical properties of river bank soil from Sungai Galas (Gua Musang and Dabong), Kelantan after 2014 flood

Floods are common natural disaster in Malaysia, particularly Kelantan. Almost every year Kelantan faces flood, but in December 2014 it gave a great change to the topography and demography of soil. The heavy flood had hit Gua musang and Dabong, Kelantan. It was not a normal flood; it was a ‘mud’ flood as the river contained high suspended sediments washed from the upper stream. This shows that the rate of soil erosion must be high. Thus, the objectives of this study are to assess the physical properties (moisture content and particle size) and to evaluate the chemical properties (pH, mineral composition, exchangeable cations and cation exchange capacity [CEC]) of river bank soil from Sungai Galas. Therefore, the data generated were analyzed properly and documented as a new data rafter 2014 flood. These data might be useful to some of the scientist, researcher or organization in order to set a starting point of a new data, which elaborates the effects of 2014 flood on deposited soil properties. The soil samples obtained at different point sources were dried and grinded before passing through 2 nun sieve to be tested for moisture content and particle size, pH, mineral composition, exchangeable cations and cation exchange capacity (CEC) respectively. Hydrometer and ammonium acetate methods were used for the determination of particle size and exchangeable cations correspondingly. Higher moisture content was found at upper soil. The pH of the samples range from 4.76 to 6.54 which is acidic. The percentage of sand Were high at all point of sources resulting in the sandy loam and loam types of soil. Si, Al and Fe were the major elements examined via XRF, while the minor elements were K, Ti, P, S, Cl, Ca, Mn and Zr. Ca²⁺was found to be the highest exchangeable cations at Sungai Galas river bank compared to Mg²⁺, Na⁺ and K⁺. Soil CEC range between 3.32 to 20.44 illustrate that the river bank is dominated with sand fractions. The physical and chemical properties examined shows high possibility of serious river bank erosion to occur if hit by another flood or high amount of rainfall. Therefore, it is crucial to study the soil properties in order to take further actions as there were dense of people living nearby the liver.