An UGM student, once again, makes the university proud on international level. Novi Rahmawati, S-2 student of scholarship program for Planning and Management of Coastal and Watershed Areas/MPPDAS, Faculty of Geography, was successful to get the achievement in the International Delta Conference. Novi won the first champion in the worldwide competition entitled Innovative Solutions for the Delta. The award was presented at the International Conference of Deltas in Times of Climate Change that took place in Rotterdam, Netherlands, from October 29 until October 1, 2010. In addition to receiving the award, Novi is also entitled to prize money worth 3000 euros.
Dr.rer.nat Muh. Aris Marfai, M.Sc. Chairman of the S-2 study program of MPPDAS, who accompanied Novi for the Conference, said that in the forum attended by more than 1,200 scientists, practitioners and professionals from around the world, Novi successfully presented a paper entitled Groundwater Zoning as Spatial Planning in Semarang. In the scientific writing, Novi conveys the ideas about the need to consider the zoning of groundwater in the implementation of city planning. Semarang City is taken as study area because this area is a delta and is a coastal area with high dynamics. Semarang faces the problem of land subsidence, sea flooding, river flooding, and sea water intrusion.
Novi classifies the zoning division of the groundwater in the coastal area of Semarang into three parts. Zone 1 is the area with very intensive ground water uptake, which results in the formation of cone of depression. This area is an area that should receive protection, especially in relation to spatial planning, so that the rate of subsidence can be controlled. Zone 2 is an area that has relatively low ground water absorption compared with zone 1. Zone 3 is a more secure area with good ground water conditions and not too high ground water uptake. With the implementation of ground water zoning, arrangement of space is expected to be more optimal while taking groundwater sustainability into account in the future.
Aris said Novi is one of the students with many achievements. "Before winning the award, Novi also received a scholarship for National Education Program for her S-2 and she participated in the student exchange program with the International Institute for Geo-Information and Earth Observation, ITC, University of Twentee in the Netherlands. She is also one candidate for the M.Sc double degree program between ITC-UGM," Aris said in a release that was sent on Monday (4/10).
Aris added, another UGM student in Planning and Management of Coastal and Watershed Areas, Fitria Nurani Sekarsih, also achieved the runner-up in the same competition with a paper entitled Surviving Delta City, Response to Global Warming, followed by Patrick Huntjjens from University of Onsabruck Germany, Suzanne Mathew and Andrea Parker from the University of Virginia, USA, Kimberly Garza from Harvard University USA, Jaap van der Salm from Wageningen University, the Netherlands and Chen Zichao from University of Singapore.