UNAIR NEWS – To determine the condition of environmental quality, environmental quality index is one of the methods used to measure the general condition of the environmental quality of a particular area. Every year, East Java’s Environment Agency (DLH) conducts research on environmental quality conditions in East Java in several points such as estuaries, rivers, and beaches.
This year, DLH East Java, in collaboration with the Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences (FPK) PSDKU Universitas Airlangga Banyuwangi, carried out a research to monitor environmental quality conditions in Banyuwangi. To UNAIR NEWS on Sunday, August 14, 2021, Ahmad Handoko Hamdani as Head of Pollution and Environmental Damage Control explained that the environmental quality index is divided into three parts, the air quality index, water quality index, and land cover index.
“Those are the components calculated as indicators of environmental quality,” he explained.
Furthermore, continued Handoko, since 2020, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry has added one component, an indicator of seawater quality. One of the aspects measured in seawater quality indicators is pollutants. The calculation of seawater quality indicators is adapted to appropriate academic methods.
“Some of the methods used are best of evidence and transect method,” he explained.
The measurement of environmental quality indicators, he continued, can provide an objective picture representing the condition of seawater quality in East Java, in general. Thus, it is necessary to be careful in determining the sampling point and monitoring point to be a reference in determining the environmental quality conditions of East Java in general.
“Of course, we don’t want unfavorable conditions such as lots of garbage and other waste at one point, referred to as the whole condition of East Java. It should be avoided,” he explained.
In the end, Handoko believes that many coastal areas in East Java are still in good condition. Therefore, it needs to be a sampling point in determining environmental quality conditions in East Java.
Author: Ananda Wildhan Wahyu Pratama
Editor: Nuri Hermawan
