WHAT IS THE 'STAPS': TIDE GAUGE STATION
The Tide Gauge Station or known as STAPS, is one of the infrastructures built by the Survey and Mapping Department of Malaysia (JUPEM). The purpose of this STAPS was to determine the values of the Mean Sea Level in Malaysian waters and then be used together with a network of precise level measurements to set the Vertical Datum for the height reference system now known as Datum Tegak Geodetik Semenanjung Malaysia (DTGSM).
There are 21 tide gauge stations throughout Malaysia where twelve (12) stations are located in Peninsular Malaysia, five (5) stations in Sabah, three (3) stations in Sarawak and one (1) in the Federal Territory of Labuan. While the first STAPS station built was in Port Klang, Selangor.
But now, these stations also function to obtain the latest height values in real time as well as record the height of the sea level throughout the country.
On 15 November 2022, a technical visit to the National Telemetry Tide Gauge Station in Port Klang was held by the Vertical Reference Infrastructure Section, Geodetic Survey Division (BUG), JUPEM. This visit was made to ensure the availability of this station to obtain data in the face of the current monsoon season.