loading…
The Mangrow application can facilitate people in preserving the technology-based environment. (Photo: Avirista Midaada)
MALANG – Applications that have an environmental perspective are very rare to find. One of them is an Internet of Things (IoT) based application created by three Telkom Malang Vocational School students named Manggrow.
“The Manggrow application can facilitate the community in preserving the environment based on technology. This application is a link between the community, environmental activists and farmers to rehabilitate mangrove plants,” said one of the team members, M. Fikri Alfaraby, in an official statement.
The creation of this application was inspired by the destruction of coastal ecosystems in several regions in Indonesia. Based on data obtained, Indonesia has the largest mangrove forest area in Asia, with 3.5 million hectares of land, but of that amount, 30 percent of it is damaged.
“Because the people still haven’t maximized the potential of these mangrove plants. So they prefer to destroy mangrove plants, rather than use them. So they divert them into aquaculture, industry and so on,” said Fikri.
From there, he and his two friends conducted research and created IoT-based equipment and applications to regulate the mangrove ecosystem for two months. The research was carried out since June and developed in July at the Indonesian Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Festival (FIKSI) competition, attended by more than 300 students throughout Indonesia, which was held by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Kemendikbudristek).
Manggrow is innovative because users can monitor mangrove trees that have been planted from a distance. Because the application and working system are IoT-based, it can be controlled remotely without visiting the location.
This application is able to read everything about the condition of mangrove plants and their surroundings based on sensors placed around the mangrove plants, starting from soil humidity, air humidity, light, planting progress from seeding, care, planting, to the location where the mangroves are planted.
“IoT tools will produce data such as temperature, temperature, water pH, humidity and so on. In the future, the public or our users can see this data and monitor the growth of their mangroves,” said Fikri.
In this application, people can donate to mangrove environmental conservation programs, which are developed by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other coastal environmental activists. Then, application users will also receive an official certificate as proof that they have planted mangroves.