Muhammad Hafiizh Imaaduddiin MT when explaining rain gauge products (ARR and AWLR) at the Santri’s House, Tambaksumur Village, Sidoarjo

ITS Campus, ITS News – Technological innovations that are increasingly advanced provide solutions to various kinds of problems. As was the case with the Real Work Lecture (KKN) team of Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) who created an automatic rain gauge for the surrounding environment. This tool will accommodate residents in mitigating floods that often occur in the surrounding environment.

The Chief Executive of KKN Muhammad Hafiizh Imaaduddiin MT conveyed that the idea of ​​making this tool innovation initially arose because of the low elevation of residents’ houses in Tambaksumur Village, Sidoarjo Regency and the increasing accumulation of liquid waste from the growth of housing in the vicinity. This causes sedimentation and water level rise in the channel. “With these problems, it is necessary to clean and regularly monitor the residents’ drainage channels,” said the lecturer who is usually called Hafiizh.

He explained, to monitor the situation when it rains, the KKN team created an Automatic Rainfall Recorder (ARR) and Automatic Water Level Recording (AWLR). The KKN team he led consisted of 10 lecturers and 32 students from the Vocational Faculty; Faculty of Civil, Planning, and Earth Engineering (FTSPK) and Faculty of Science and Data Analytics (FSAD). “With this tool, residents can be independent and alert in fighting floods,” said Hafiiz.

Furthermore, this lecturer from the Department of Civil Infrastructure Engineering (DTIS) revealed that the placement of the two tools also needs to be taken into account. Therefore, the KKN student mapping team carried out surveys and topographic measurements. This is to determine the effective point in placing the two tools.

Installation of AWLR tools and sensors by the ITS KKN team in one of the citizen channels

To be more specific, according to Hafiiz, ARR is placed on one of the residents’ roofs which will then collect water and report various kinds of data when it rains through an application that has been installed on residents’ smartphones. Hafiiz explained that when the ARR water reservoir is full, it will display data on the height and duration of the rain and how high the puddle will appear.

Display data from applications that have been integrated with ALR

On the other hand, the AWLR is placed in one of the residents’ housing drainage channels. This is because the AWLR will function as a water level monitor for residents’ channels with the Internet of Things (IoT) system. There is a smartphone application that can be used by residents in real-time channel conditions when it rains. “So that with the internet application, residents do not need to come to the location to see the condition of the channel when it rains,” said Hafiizh.

The form of the ARR installed by the ITS KKN team on one of the roofs of the houses of residents of Tambaksumur Village, Sidoarjo

Hafiizh revealed, this KKN is a collaborative activity across fields of science. With Hafiizh and DTIS students’ understanding of rainfall and topography within the scope of Civil Engineering, which was then supported by student knowledge from Electrical Automation Engineering and ITS Instrumentation Engineering in designing ARR and AWLR. So that it is expected to be able to maximally help the residents of Tambaksumur Village.

With the two rain gauges, it is hoped that residents will be able to make mitigation efforts when it rains. Coupled with the application that has been integrated with ARR and AWLR which is able to make it easier for residents to seek flood mitigation. “Hopefully, in the long term, residents will be prepared to fight floods,” said Hafiiz optimistically. (ITS Public Relations)

Reporter: Gandhi Kesuma