Merapi eruption in 2010 has caused considerable damage. More than 400.000 people were evacuated and 2.300 houses were damaged. This experience has set the interest of Riza Atika, Anung Endra Raditya and Rohsan Nur Marjianto, students of Mechatronics Engineering Education Study Program UNY, to create an early warning system for cold lava floods based on internet of things. The system has integrated loudspeakers for places of worship so that they can convey hazard information to potentially affected communities as soon as possible to minimize casualties.
Riza Atika explained that the early warning system has a float mechanical sensor which is more durable than the ultrasonic sensor on existing tools. “Based on Internet of Things, our early warning system is connected to cellphones and computers via the internet network which will create data interconnection," she said. With this interconnection, it will be faster and easier to give early warning information for possible cold lava floods on rivers that are prone to cold lava floods. This tool is also equipped with solar panels as its main power source to help remote region with no electricity network.
The GSM SIM900A module played an important role. Anung Endra Raditya said that this module will enable sending river water level data and messages from the latest eruption landslide condition in the form of SMS (Short Message Service) to the client side to trigger the loudspeaker on the server side to sound and provide early warning for the public to be alert.
Rohsan Nur Marjianto stated that every one minute the client side will take a sample of data to be sent to the server, then the server will send it to the database for storage and processing, which can then be accessed via Android-based applications and websites by the public. Data that can be monitored by the community is monitoring weather status, rainfall, and current information on river water levels. This information disclosure is to support transparency of information to the public and hopefully the community will be ready to respond to disasters earlier. (Dedy, Tj.Lak)
