Prof Dr rer pol Heri Kuswanto MSi with the Encouragement Award from the Hitachi Global Foundation Asia Innovation Award 2024

ITS Campus, ITS News —  Another proud achievement on an international scale was carved by the academic community of the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) . As a form of appreciation for his dedication in developing research and science, ITS professor Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Heri Kuswanto MSi was awarded the Hitachi Global Foundation Asia Innovation Award 2024 for the Encouragement Awards category for his contribution to climate resilience research in Indonesia.

This award is given to researchers who have made major contributions and achievements in technology development research and social implementation in order to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), one of which is to this ITS Statistics Department lecturer . Through his research, Heri has proven ITS’s concrete contribution to supporting the SDGs, especially SDGs 13, namely on handling climate change.

Starting from climate change that makes the weather difficult to predict, this alumnus of Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany was challenged to develop a method to predict weather and extreme events more accurately. “When I returned to Indonesia, I felt that weather predictions in Indonesia at that time were still less accurate,” said Heri.

Prof Dr rer pol Heri Kuswanto MSi (right) with Dr Fachri Radjab (left) during a visit to the BMKG Jakarta Command Center

The research then continued with the development of methods for extreme weather prediction. By combining the ensemble concept through an innovative calibration method that uses gamma and Fréchet distributions to improve predictions of extreme events, such as heavy rain. “The results of our research show increased accuracy in being able to predict extreme events,” explained the man who once served as Director of Postgraduate and Academic Development at ITS.

The Dean of the Interdisciplinary School of Management and Technology (SIMT) ITS continued his research by developing the Drought Monitoring and Forecasting System (DMFS), which is an ensemble-based drought monitoring and forecasting system. Heri said he would continue to make improvements so that this research can be utilized by the wider community.

Prof Dr rer pol Heri Kuswanto MSi (standing) with staff from the BMKG Research and Development Center discussing research on weather ensemble forecasts

With regular updates, extreme climates can be anticipated by the community and their negative impacts can be reduced. In addition, this system can also be used as a reference for determining the planting calendar later. “In addition to developing the system, we need to ensure that the general public can easily access and use it,” said Heri.

This active researcher at the ITS Center for Disaster Mitigation and Climate Change Studies expressed his hope in contributing and synergizing with various parties, especially the government, to try to mitigate the impacts of climate change now and in the future. “We should not only think ‘now’, but what about our children and grandchildren in the future,” he reminded. (ITS PUBLIC RELATIONS)

Reporter: Nailah Rifdah Zakiyah

Translator : Devinka Mutianeira