International Journal of Engineering Advanced Research eISSN: 2710-7167 | Vol. 5 No. 2 [June 2023]
Journal website: http://myjms.mohe.gov.my/index.php/ijear
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ‘SMART ENVIRONMENT’
DEVELOPMENT BY THE COMMUNITY OF LEREP TOURISM VILLAGE
Eppy Yuliani1* and Mila Karmila2
1 2 Universitas Islam Sultan Agung, Semarang, INDONESIA
*Corresponding author: [email protected]
Article Information:
Article history:
Received date : 18 April 2023 Revised date : 2 May 2023 Accepted date : 23 May 2023 Published date : 6 June 2023
To cite this document:
Yuliani. E., & Karmila, M. (2023).
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF
‘SMART ENVIRONMENT’
DEVELOPMENT BY THE
COMMUNITY OF LEREP TOURISM VILLAGE.International Journal of Engineering Advanced Research, 5(2), 72-79.
Abstract: Lerep Village, West Ungaran District, Semarang Regency, is a well-known tourism village both locally and nationally. Its activities started to rise in the post Covid-19 Pandemic era. In addition to the Community Activities Restrictions Enforcement (PPKM) policy, this tourism village ought to take advantages of information and communication technology (ICT) to promote tourism objects to the larger community. The existence of Smart Village concept is supposed to foster the growth of the Lerep Tourism Village without removing its local wisdom. Smart Environment is one of the Smart Village elements that has been implemented in Lerep Village. Most people's awareness of environmental management is still poor, triggering education and community engagement socialization.
The purpose of this study is to figure out a Smart Environment form in Lerep Tourism Village. The study took place in Lerep Village, West Ungaran District, Semarang Regency, employing a rationalistic qualitative deductive method and descriptive analysis technique. It can be concluded that Lerep Village has implemented a smart environment in terms of managing clean water, garbage, household waste, and drainage.
Keywords: Implementation, smart environment, village, tourism.
1. Introduction
The current village innovation trend is attempting to adopt a smart village model, which is a subset of Smart City model. A smart village is a rural area and community that capitalizes on existing strengths and assets while also exploring new alternatives for added values, where traditional and modern networks are amplified for the benefits of the community by digital communication technology, innovation, and better use of science (EU Network For Rural Development No. 26 of 2018 in AA Aziza and T. Susanto, 2020)
The development initiation begins with an analysis of the potentials and needs for a smart village, which is grounded on an exploration of the competencies endowed by village officials and managers of village-owned enterprises (BUMDES) required for smart village implementation. This approach encompasses smart government, smart community, smart living, smart economy, smart environment, and smart mobility.
The study scope is Lerep Village, West Ungaran District, Semarang Regency. This study is deemed necessary in order to provide guidance for the development of a tourism village into a smart village.
The problem is that waste has been a classic issue that will always exist in modern society. All parties must be engaged in seeking for solutions to the waste issue in order to create a clean and sustainable environment (smart environment). Communities that generate waste must be involved in waste management as well.
In the current technological era, Lerep Tourism Village has not brought desirable innovations yet in the development of tourism sub-sector. Some people still believe that environmental management is poor. The establishment of environmental management facilities encourages the community to be environmentally conscious and capable of managing the environment effectively. Community readiness for environmental facility adaptation still requires education and socialization.
The purpose of this study is to analyze the Smart Environment implementation in Lerep Tourism Village, West Ungaran District, Semarang Regency.
This study is necessary in order to determine how far the Lerep Village community has developed the smart environment program.
2. Theoretical Review
Smart Environment refers to the development of smart environmental management, where the development of community facilities and infrastructure is oriented to the environment, resulting in good, responsible, and sustainable environmental management. Basically, the development of a city must be based on “building with nature”. According to Law No. 32 of 2009 on Environmental Protection and Management, it is said:
1. That a good and healthy environment is a fundamental right of every Indonesian citizen, as mandated by Article 28H of the Republic of Indonesia's 1945 Constitution.
City development is a conscious and planned effort that integrates environmental, social, and economic aspects into a development strategy to ensure environmental integrity as well as safety, capability, welfare, and life quality of current and future generations. Smart Environment, for example, is based on the following 8 (eight) indicators:
• Provision of public open spaces
• Waste disposal management
• Slum areas management
• River functions revitalization
• “Chopstick syndrome” avoidance in buildings and property construction
• Alternative energy sources
• Reducing production and impacts of CO2
• Utilization of vacant land for reforestation
Smart Environment is made up of 3 (three) sub-pillars: (1) developing environmental protection programs, (2) developing garbage and waste management, and (3) developing sustainable energy management. Smart environment dimensions consist of (1) environmental protection; (2) garbage and waste management; and (3) responsible energy management.
According to Cook and Das, a smart environment is ‘a small world where various types of smart devices are consistently striving to improve the lives of its residents more comfortable." Smart environment aims to satisfy the individual experience of each environment by replacing dangerous activities, physical labors, and repetitive tasks with automatically generated agents.
The goal of smart environment is to solve various environmental issues, such as sanitation, air cleanliness, garbage, global warming, carbon emission issues, availability of child-friendly public spaces, availability of parks, and so on. The challenge is to figure out how to organize and manage environment to make tourists interested in paying a visit (Herdiana, 2019).
Problematic Issues
Lerep Village residents have not all implemented smart environmental management.
Environmental issues encountered at the research site were not adequately addressed. Even though, in the current era, the environmental management capability is required in order to create comfort and preserve natural resources.
3. Methodology
The rationalistic qualitative approach was employed in this study. The observation was conducted at Lerep Village, West Ungaran District, Semarang Regency.
The parameters included garbage and waste management; sanitation, energy, and clean water.
The analysis technique was carried out using a qualitative description, which was based on field observation and in-depth interview with several respondents.
4. Results and Analysis
Lerep Village, West Ungaran District, Semarang Regency is one of the villages declared as a tourism village by the Regional Government. Many village potential tourist attractions have been designated. The designation of the Lerep Tourism Village has triggered community enthusiasm for tourism activities and the development of village settlement environment.
The Concept of Smart Environment
Smart environment is a component of a smart village, which is derived from a smart city. A smart environment is commonly referred to as an intelligent or intellectual environment. A smart environment is one that can provide community and public with comfort, resource sustainability, and both physical and non-physical beauty (Van Basten Maria Fernandes Koy, 2019).
Purnomowati and Ismini in Koy (2019) characterized indicators of a smart environment as 1) technology-based environmental management; 2) technology-based natural resources management; and 3) newest energy sources development. Meanwhile, according to Meiryani (2022), smart environment includes three pillars: 1. environmental protection development, 2 garbage and waste management systems, and 3 sustainable energy management.
The infrastructure stages in Indonesia's Smart Village framework are divided into three categories: energy, broadband, and sensors (Hasibuan, 2021 in Emma Rahmawati, 2021).
Smart environment is one of the supporting elements of Smart Village.
The followings are the results of 3 (three) pillars based on the research observation:
a. Environmental Protection
The Lerep Village community is concerned about local environmental conditions by planting and maintaining plant vegetation in their yards. Besides, they maintain water sources for agricultural irrigation by preserving the culture of clean river water, which is the village's local wisdom, known as Iriban. This tradition has been passed down from generation to generation in order to keep water available for irrigating rice fields.
b. Waste Management
Trash bins are available in each local neighborhood of the Lerep Village waste networks.
Through a waste management system, the majority is transported (off-site) once per week.
However, some houses still make use of garbage system, some of which are on-site (through burning or landfilling). Every day, garbage is transported from house to house to the landfill, using pick-up trucks or three-wheeled motorcycles, and then is forwarded to the final landfill, using a garbage truck once a week.
Figure 1: Trash Bins and Landfills in Lerep Village Source: Researchers’ survey 2022
Figure 2: Waste Banks and 3R Landfills Source: Researchers’ survey 2022
Figure 2 depicts 3R landfills and waste banks in Lerep village. This is the starting point for sorting waste at the 3R landfills, which can be utilized as a craft for processing waste into various designs of bags from the raw materials derived from collected plastic wastes. The presence of waste banks in Lerep Village mitigates the burden on waste bank members, as the proceeds from waste sales are used to pay BPJS fees every month, with the results of collecting dry wastes that can be resold.
c. Sanitation
Sanitation or domestic wastewater in Lerep Village is handled by the septic tank system, in which each house has its own septic tank channel with no preceding management. However, Karangbolo Hamlet, in particular, already has a Communal IPAL system, with the WWTP serving ± 50 homes that are already connected to the Communal IPAL networks. The following is a description of the IPAL Communal network scheme, which is available in Karangbolo Hamlet, Lerep Village.
Figure 3: Communal IPAL Network System Source: DPU website
Figure 4: Communal IPAL Channels di Lerep Village Source: Researchers’ survey 2022
d. Clean Water
In terms of clean water in the current predicament, the community mostly takes advantages of clean water from the Community-Based Water Supply and Sanitation Program (PAMSIMAS) pipelines with mountain springs and groundwater sources in Karangbolo Hamlet. The figure below depicts the clean water of PAMSIMAS shelter in Lerep Village.
Figure 5: PAMSIMAS Water Storage Tank in Lerep Village Source: Researchers’ survey, 2022
For the distribution of water to each house, the community who takes advantages of water sources installs PVC pipes. The community who takes advantages of water.
e. Energy Use
The energy use in Lerep Village is based on the survey results on the community using electricity for both household and commercial purposes. Electricity payment systems take the form of prepaid (token charging) and postpaid (subscription). The electricity networks in Lerep Village have reached eight hamlets. People use LPG gas for their cooking needs on a daily basis. Some still make use of firewood found near settlements. For the community having a number of cattle in Indraloka Hamlet, there is a lot of potential for biogas production from livestock manure. This biogas can be used as an alternative energy source for household lighting and cooking fuel. However, the community has, so far, not been able to develop biogas techniques due to the relatively high cost of doing so.
5. Conclusion
According to the result of the study, it can be concluded that the implementation of Smart Environment in Lerep Touri`sm Village, West Ungaran District, Semarang Regency, has been carried out by the community. It takes form of environmental protection, particularly agricultural irrigation water, implementing go-green environment, waste management, sanitation, communal WWTP waste management, clean water supply, and energy use.
Alternative energy from biogas sources has great potentials, but it has not been implemented due to cost barriers.
The implementation of smart environment in Lerep Village is still limited to the use of appropriate technology, which is already quite good in environmental management.
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