Flood deposits characterization in Citarum Riverbank Area in Bandung Regency, West Java, Indonesia

Abstract

Abstract Citarum River, the longest river in West Java, is one of the most strategic rivers yet one of the most polluted rivers causing a series of floods throughout history. Understanding shallow flood deposits characteristics may infer the past flooding episode and predict future flood deposits distribution. This research aims to analyze grain size and elemental distributions of flood deposits found in the Citarum Riverbank Area at several districts in Bandung Regency, West Java. Shallow coring resulted in soil samples showing that the samples were dominated by clay and silt. Element analysis revealed that Si and Al are the major elements followed by high concentrations of Fe-oxide in all soil samples. Based on these findings, it is presumed that there were two major episodes of past-floods that occurred in the research area.