Development of Agronomist Station System for Water Table Management at Peatland

Abstract

The palm oil sector has been criticized globally for being the source of diverse negative impacts on the surrounding environment due to the increasing rate of land development in the peatland. Scientific evidence shows that the peatland becomes less tolerant of subsidence once the existing water is over drained for agriculture development. To overcome this problem, planters had established a water gate system in the vegetation area so that the distribution of water is possible to recover an area with a low water table. Commonly, a piezometer is deployed to evaluate the water table at the problematic zone. Unfortunately, this approach has limitations in which the manual reading assessment is prone to human error and requires a lot of time and effort. Therefore, the Agronomist Station (AGROST) is developed to counter these drawbacks. The purpose of this study is to improve water table management in the agriculture sector by developing a near real-time system, AGROST that continuously monitors water level at a remote area for data analysis and visualization. This project utilized probes that will be stationed on-site to automate the sensing process. At the central server, the collection of data is computed for analysis by displaying a rich graphical and visualization presentation style to improve end-user understanding. In conclusion, AGROST provides a clear understanding of the water table at the remote site, encouraging effective controls of the water level and predicts the possible water table pattern and trend in the future.