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Improvement of Jakarta’s air quality during large scale social restriction
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International Conference on Biospheric Harmony Advanced Research 2020
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 729 (2021) 012132
IOP Publishing
doi:10.1088/1755-1315/729/1/012132
1
Improvement of Jakarta’s air quality during large scale social
restriction
R Rahutomo1,*, K Purwandari2, J W C Sigalingging3, and B Pardamean4
1 Information System Department, School of Information Systems
Bina Nusantara University Jakarta, Indonesia 11480
2 Computer Science Department, BINUS Graduate Program –
Master of Computer Science Program, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia 11480
3 Database Center Division of BMKG, Meteorological, Climatological, and Geophysical
Agency, Jakarta, Indonesia 10720
4 Bioinformatics & Data Science Research Center Bina Nusantara University
Jakarta, Indonesia 11480
E-mail: reza.rahutomo@binus.edu
Abstract. After Large-Scale Social Restriction (PSBB) established in Jakarta, a change of air
quality was indicated by the citizens. Representatives of Indonesia’s Agency for Meteorology,
Climatology, and Geophysics (BMKG) supported as the fact that mobility of Jakarta’s citizen
and commuters were reduced. With utilizing Weather Data Acquisition System managed by
BMKG, this research compared fluctuations of Jakarta’s air quality during two periods of time:
Pre-PSBB and During-PSBB. This study proved that Jakarta's air quality has positively
improved compared to the previous year, although in the lower range of unhealthy level.
1. Introduction
After the President of Indonesia declared Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has
reached the country in the middle of March 2020 and Jakarta as the center of it, Large-Scale Social
Restriction or Pembatasan Sosial Berskala Besar (PSBB) was considered effective immediately
instead of lockdown [1]. Large scale social distancing which considered as partial lockdown, was
chosen with consideration to minimize the damage in economy. The President believed if people
complied with physical distancing during outdoor activities, the spread of COVID-19 can be
minimized [2]. On April 10th 2020, as an area where the most confirmed cases and death toll occurred
in Indonesia, Jakarta established PSBB as a strategy to minimize disease contamination probability.
Those who carried Work From Home (WFH) initiative during PSBB experienced positive and
negative impacts. A study by Purwanto found that school teachers have several advantages such as
flexible time, no commuting required, less stress due to traffic jam, and more spare time.
Consequently, data security, electricity and Internet bills increased [3]. On the other side, Praptana and
Riyanto also studied the impact of WFH according to State Civil Apparatus. Unlike the previous study
revealing pros and cons, this study found the effectiveness of work affected by supervision whether it
is conducted at the office or home [4].
Katadata.co.id reported that PSBB has changed commercial activities in Jakarta. Citizens who
accustomed to meet their daily needs in shopping malls and grocery stores moved to e-commerce to
International Conference on Biospheric Harmony Advanced Research 2020
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 729 (2021) 012132
IOP Publishing
doi:10.1088/1755-1315/729/1/012132
2
purchase groceries. This phenomenon affected an expedition company that operates in Jakarta named
SiCepat. Summarized in the report of katadata.co.id, package delivery workload of SiCepat increased
by 13% after PSBB was declared [5].
Despite many unexpected changes happening due to COVID-19 outbreak, Indonesia’s Agency
for Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics (BMKG) stated that Jakarta’s air quality was
improving as citizen mobility and operational of several factories reduced [6], [7]. This case becomes
a motivation to have phenomenological study to describe the condition of Jakarta's air quality after the
local government announced self-quarantine and restricted mobilities due to COVID-19 spread.
This study aims to prove whether the establishment of PSBB improves Jakarta's air quality. As
Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5 is one of the major pollutants monitored in many air quality standards, this
study also focused on the fluctuation of PM 2.5 during two periods of time: Pre-PSBB and During-
PSBB. With utilizing dataset from Weather Data Acquisition System of BMKG, this study concludes
the improvement of Jakarta’s air quality refers to Air Quality Index from the United States
Environmental Protection Agency.
2. Previous studies
Caraka et al. [8] studied rainfall pattern in the region of East Java to produce monthly analysis and
predictions. With utilizing annual rainfall data in six locations in East Java during January – March
2018, this study used generalized space-time autoregressive and generated an accuracy Mean Absolute
Percentage Error (MAPE) out sample amount 2.95% while Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) out
sample amount 4.77. The prediction model that created at this research could facilitate Indonesia’s
agriculture and irrigation sectors to plan and make decisions within the next 1 to 3 months related to
climatic conditions, especially rainfall.
Kusumaningtyas et al. has examined air quality of Jakarta on two periods: June 29th 2016 to July
13th 2016, and June 17th 2017 to July 1st 2017 [9]. Those periods were chosen as holiday of Ied Al Fitr
or Hari Raya was celebrated. During Hari Raya celebration, Jakarta’s air quality is presumably clearer
since most of Jakartans are leaving the city for homecoming. The result of the examination showing
on Hari Raya 2016, the amount of Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5 concentration had a tendency to
increase while in the following year it was decreasing. The comparison of minimum amount of PM 2.5
on 2016 and 2017, which were quite significantly different, supported the finding for both periods. On
2016, the minimum amount of PM 2.5 is nearly 40 µg/m3 while 2017 is less than 10 µg/m3.
To enrich our conception of Jakarta’s air quality, researchers looked after various studies with
similar topic. Kusuma et al. [10] compared the air quality of Jakarta to Taipei as a fair comparison of
capital cities. The research was conducted in longer coverage as from January 1st 2016 to December
31st 2018. While the amount of PM 2.5 in Taipei was practically stable throughout the years, Jakarta’s
amount of PM 2.5 was rising up to 50 µg/m3 in the first six months and falling to 20 µg/m3 in the
following semester. This research summarized that the period of March to April is the time when the
amount of PM 2.5 in Jakarta rises.
3. Methodology
This research analyzed data from a Weather Data Acquisition System (WDAS) managed by BMKG.
As a Non-Departmental Government Institution, BMKG is responsible in regulatory tasks in the fields
of Meteorology, Climatology, Air Quality and Geophysics in compliance with relevant legislation and
regulations. One of the functions of BMKG is the management of air quality data through observation
stations and automated equipment. BMKG managed three observation points in Jakarta, namely:
Kemayoran – Central Jakarta, The United States Consulate – Central Jakarta and The United States
Consulate – South Jakarta. Data set of The United States Consulate – South Jakarta is utilized in this
research since the completeness and the accuracy of the records is the first priority. Compared to
another observation points, data set of South Jakarta has the least missing data that leads to better
accuracy. The transformation from daily time series format to weekly average is utilized for data
aggregation.
International Conference on Biospheric Harmony Advanced Research 2020
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 729 (2021) 012132
IOP Publishing
doi:10.1088/1755-1315/729/1/012132
3
The air quality parameters observed by BMKG varied. PM 2.5, PM 10, and Carbon Monoxide
(CO), are the examples of the primary parameters to determine Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) based
on Government Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia Number 41 of 1999 about controlling air
pollution.
The parameters such as temperature, humidity, and pressure are measured by the respective
sensors in WDAS to convert the records into digital form [11]. Typically, Data Acquisition Systems
(abbreviated using the acronym DAS or DAQ) components covered these following points [12]:
A. Sensors which convert parameters to electrical signals.
B. Circuitry of signal conditioning to transform sensor signals into a shape that can be
translated to digital values.
C. Analog-to-digital converters converting to digital values driven sensor signals.
The design of weather monitoring system utilized by BMKG to record and monitor Jakarta’s
weather is depicted in Figure 1. The particulate sensor module and the CO gas sensor module provide
input data for the microcontroller. Microcontroller as receiver and processor of data output from
sensors and Real Time Clock (RTC). In addition, the microcontroller also functions to regulate and
display data visualizations through LCD screens and connected personal computers. To support the
performance of the system, a composition of PPD42NS dust sensor, MQ-7 gas sensor and using
ATMega 328 microcontroller are utilized as a data processing center.
Figure 1. Air Pollution Monitoring System
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) [13] provided Air Quality Index
with the specific calculations of PM 2.5 as provided in Table 1.
Table 1. Categorizations of Air Quality Index (AQI)
AQI Category
24-hr Average PM 2.5
Concentration
Good
0 – 15.4
Moderate
15.5 – 40.4
Unhealthy for Specific Groups
40.5 – 65.4
Unhealthy
65.5 – 150.4
Very Unhealthy
150.5 – 250.4
Sensors
RTC
Microcontroller
LCD Screens
RTC
Computers
Sends data
Generates
Display
International Conference on Biospheric Harmony Advanced Research 2020
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 729 (2021) 012132
IOP Publishing
doi:10.1088/1755-1315/729/1/012132
4
4. Results and discussions
The researchers discussed the concentration PM 2.5 that fluctuate when an observation was conducted
from June 2019 to April 2020. Figure 2 illustrates the improvement of monthly average of PM 2.5
during the observation. Overall, the air quality during January – February was better than what
occurred during June – December. The amount of PM 2.5 remains constant in the range of 140 – 150
µg/m3 during June to October 2019. The finding is contrary to the fact that the monthly average of PM
2.5 concentration never surpasses 130 µg/m3 between January to April 2020. According to Table 1,
these findings are categorized in unhealthy level.
The research followed by observing the fluctuation of PM 2.5 between January to April 2020. We
separated the observation into two timeframes, namely Pre-PSBB (January – February 2020) and
During-PSBB (March – April 2020).
Figure 2. Jakarta’s Monthly Average of PM 2.5 during June 2019 to April 2020
Figure 3 illustrated the contrast of PM 2.5 fluctuation during Pre-PSBB and During-PSBB. Even
though they were measured in the same nine-week observation, different trends occurred on both
curves. While the amount of PM 2.5 encounters downward trend on Pre-PSBB, the curve of During-
PSBB symbolized upward trend. This summarized that the establishment of PSBB on the sixth week
of During-PSBB did not deliver much impact.
Figure 3. Jakarta's Weekly Average of PM 2.5 on Pre-PSBB and During-PSBB
International Conference on Biospheric Harmony Advanced Research 2020
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 729 (2021) 012132
IOP Publishing
doi:10.1088/1755-1315/729/1/012132
5
4.1. Discussion
As illustrated on Figure 2, Jakarta’s air quality had been consistently unhealthy level during June –
December. The trend of monthly average PM 2.5 as discovered in Figure 2 signifies the actual activity
in Jakarta. The air quality on Pre-PSBB that categorized in lower range of unhealthy level is suspected
the beginning of economic recession and the trending news of COVID-19 outbreak on the Internet
especially outside Indonesia were presumably the reasons why some people losing their enthusiasm to
commute and followed by the low unhealthy level of PM 2.5. As illustrated on Figure 3, on both Pre-
PSBB and During-PSBB, the air quality improved but still considered as unhealthy. As the fasting
season was about to start, the desire to supply foods and daily needs had definitely increased and made
PSBB ignored.
The first semester of every year in Jakarta is known as the time when the level of PM 2.5
increases [10]. Since the spread of COVID-19 forced most Jakartans to work at home and home
schooling, there was less traffic jam. This phenomenon affected the air quality of Jakarta to be similar
to when Jakarta residents left the city for homecoming to celebrate Hari Raya in the end of June 2017.
The sudden establishment of PSBB caused the air quality fluctuation of Jakarta completely different.
Therefore, this fluctuation of PM 2.5 affected the clarity of Jakarta’s visibility. The better analysis
could be generated if the concentration of Carbon Monoxide (CO) was provided as it correlated to PM
2.5 for air quality determination. Nevertheless, the improvement of PM 2.5 can be recognized easily
since the weekly average compilation generates a comprehensive visualisation.
On the other side, BMKG-managed WDAS shows fragility in constant data recording. Compared
to popular weather systems, a more intense maintenance is necessary due to lack of capacity to keep
routine records can lead to significant data gaps [14]. Since some weather stations had been already
equipped with external power supply such as small size battery to avoid blackouts, the utilization
additional power supply could be an optimal consideration. Wireless data communication also can be
a consideration for further optimization of data acquisition strategy. If data were transmitted
wirelessly, adopting Artificial Neural Network for real time classification with high accuracy would be
able to be realized [15], [16].
5. Conclusion
Large-Scale Social Restriction (PSBB) suddenly established a strategy to limit the spread of COVID-
19 in Indonesia, especially in Jakarta. Moreover, Jakarta's air quality on Pre-PSBB (January –
February 2020) and During-PSBB (March – April 2020) has improved compared to June – December
2019, even though in the lower range of unhealthy level.
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IOP Publishing
doi:10.1088/1755-1315/729/1/012132
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