Brief Description of the MERMAID–BRANTAS Project

The joint project BRANTAS which is partiallyfunded by the German Ministry of Research (bmb+f) aims at the monitoringof water quality in a tropical estuary. Using already existing technologya prototype of an autonomous landbased measurement station for chemicaland biological parameters will be developed taking into account the specificconditions in tropical waters. The data will be automatically collecteddepending on hydrological conditions and other external factors and evaluatedtogether with samplings and laboratory analyses.

The considered area is the Brantas riversystem in the south-east part of Java, Indonesia. Together with its tributariesthe Brantas river supplies around 14 million inhabitants with drinkingwater and service water for agriculture. As receiving water for differentindustries as well as for urban sewage water of big cities the river oftenbecomes critically polluted especially during dry season.

Hydromod’s specific task in this projectis the development of a numerical simulation model to investigate the basiccirculation, transport and pollution processes in the coastal region. TheBrantas river with his diverse sidearms near Surabaya causes considerableproblems as e.g. pollution of heavy metals, esp. mercury, oil, sewage waterof the chemical industry, morphological changes with negative effects.Together with the information of the planned MERMAID station, the HYDROPLANstations of the already existing segmented model of the Brantas river basinas well as the river model of the Indonesian environmental authority JASATIRTA the still minor knowledge of the circulation and transport processesof this coastal area will be considerably extended.

The Brantas river system is of primaryimportance as drinking water reservoir for the city and region of Surabayawith more than 8 million inhabitants and eastern Java. Therefore the long-termobjective of the BRANTAS project is the improved control of the estuary(drinking water extraction, fish farming and aqua culture, fisheries) by a qualified watermanagement strategy.