Development and Field Evaluation of a Solar-Powered LoRa-Based Air Quality Monitoring and Early-Warning System for a Sand-Mining Area

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33650/jeecom.v8i2.17080
Authors

(1) * Alamsyah -   (Department of Electrical Engineering, Tadulako University)  
        Indonesia
(2)  Aidynal Mustari   (Department of Electrical Engineering, Tadulako University)  
        Indonesia
(3)  Moh. Ikro Fajar Rahman   (Department of Electrical Engineering, Tadulako University)  
        Indonesia
(4)  Mohammed Ikhlayel   (Department of Information Technology and Communications, Al-Quds Open University, Ramallah 51000, Palestine)  
        Palestinian Territory, Occupied
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract


Air pollution generated by sand-mining activities can degrade environmental quality and increase public-health risks, particularly in locations lacking continuous air-quality monitoring infrastructure. This study presents the development and field evaluation of a solar-powered LoRa-based air-quality monitoring and early-warning system for the Watusampu sand-mining area in Palu City, Indonesia. The main contribution of the proposed system is the integration of autonomous solar power, long-range wireless communication, multi-parameter sensing, real-time visualization, local backup storage, and ISPU-based warning functions into a single deployable platform. The transmitter node combines ZH03B, MiCS-5524, and DHT22 sensors with an ESP32 and RFM95W LoRa module to measure PM₁, PM₂.₅, PM₁₀, carbon monoxide, temperature, and relative humidity. At the receiver node, the acquired data are processed, stored on a microSD card, uploaded to a web database, and displayed through an LCD and real-time dashboard. Air-quality status is classified using Indonesia’s Air Pollutant Standard Index (ISPU). Sensor performance was evaluated by comparison with a reference air-quality detector, while LoRa communication was tested under Line-of-Sight (LoS) and Non-Line-of-Sight (Non-LoS) conditions. The ZH03B sensor produced average errors of 6.61%, 10.58%, and 8.67% for PM₁, PM₂.₅, and PM₁₀, respectively, while the average errors for CO, temperature, and relative humidity were 18.48%, 0.87%, and 0.61%. LoRa communication achieved 0% packet loss up to 1.2 km under LoS conditions and up to 20 m under Non-LoS conditions. These findings indicate that the proposed platform is feasible for autonomous, real-time air-quality monitoring and early warning in sand-mining areas with limited infrastructure.

Keywords

air quality monitoring; LoRa; sensor; solar-powered system; web server







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