Halo Banjir, Inovasi Sistem Peringatan Dini Bencana Banjir Karya Mahasiswa UGM
Halo Banjir, Inovasi Sistem Peringatan Dini Bencana Banjir Karya Mahasiswa UGM
Flooding is a disaster that has high occurrences in Indonesia between 2017-2018 according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency. Flooding has taken many casualties as well as substantial losses. Flooding is often caused by continuous rains or river inundation.
Seeing this condition, Hamdan Fauzi and Ilham Syawal Irman, Engineering Physics students, and Wanter Pius Limbong, Electronics and Instrumentation student, were moved to help resolve flood incidence. Under the guidance of Dr. Ing, Ir Singgih Hawibowo, they have designed Halo Banjir system in the Student Creativity Programme for monitoring water level in the river for early warning system in the events of a flood.
The Halo Banjir system, according to Fauzi, consisted of 3 sub-systems. First, the monitoring system to measure water level that is installed in the river banks. Secondly, sirene equipped with speakers that are installed in residential settlements, and lastly, information system in the form of Android-based applications.
Fauzi said the Halo Banjir was designed for installation in any parts of the river or remote areas that lack of electricity. It is also photovoltaic or solar powered so it can still run without electricity supplies from the state electricity company. In urban areas Halo Banjir is installed with Android application that enables everyone to monitor the water level from time to time.
Fauzi said that such systems were available around the world but Halo Banjir was better in several aspects. Physically, the frames of Halo Banjir are sturdier in the monitoring station or early warning system. On information accuracy level, Halo Banjir will report the height of the water, duration of incoming water, and evacuation route through speakers in the monitoring stations right at the time when the water is high tides. “This is important because up to this time, the failure of flood early warning system is mostly due to information inaccuracies that are reported to the society,” he said on Monday (9/7).
According to Fauzi, the next step would be to open collaboration with agencies that work in disaster mitigation areas to make the application useful during flooding.