UNS — The Architecture Study Program of the Faculty of Engineering (FT) at Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta, together with the UNS Japan Study Center (PSJ), conducted a series of international community service activities in collaboration with students from Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences (RUAS), the Netherlands. A total of five international students from RUAS, alongside students from the Architecture Study Program’s Urban Rural Design & Conservation (URDC) Laboratory FT UNS, have continuously carried out activities in Sumber Subdistrict. The program began in the odd semester of 2025 and continued into the even semester of 2026.
This program focuses on participatory mapping and environmental advocacy, particularly addressing waste management issues along the Sumber River area. The activities are supervised by Dr. Eng. Kusumaningdyah Nurul Handayani, S.T., M.T., as part of the International Community Partnership Service (PKMI) 2025 scheme under the UNS Institute for Research and Community Service (LPPM). The program series includes participatory mapping using the GreenMap method, focusing on waste management, environmental awareness, advocacy for organic fertilizer production through composting, and advocacy for inorganic waste sorting. The activities involve children and teenagers living around the Sumber River, Gadjah Putih River, and Kali Pepe River settlements. These three rivers flow through Sumber Subdistrict, Banjarsari District, Surakarta City.
The community service activities in Sumber Subdistrict were initiated based on preliminary surveys and a series of Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). “The residential area along the Sumber River was identified as a priority area requiring intervention due to waste accumulation around the RW 07 dam area. This has caused river flow blockages, increased flood risks, and reduced the environmental quality of the settlement,” explained Dr. Eng. Kusumaningdyah Nurul Handayani.
The first FGD was conducted with community representatives and village officials as part of the participatory mapping process using the GreenMap method. Through questionnaires and the placement of GreenMap icons on a base map, residents actively identified environmental problems and potentials along the Sumber River and Gadjah Putih River corridors. As a follow-up, the second FGD was held with residents of RW 07, one of the affected areas. Discussions focused on evaluating waste management, improving community understanding of environmental issues, and discussing contextual and sustainable solutions.
“The FGD results showed increasing public awareness and motivation to participate in maintaining river cleanliness, although support facilities and cross-sector collaboration are still needed,” she stated to uns.ac.id on Wednesday (6/5/2026).
The next series of activities consisted of practical workshops on organic and inorganic waste management held at Taman Cerdas Sumber. The workshops involved 25 children from the River Care Community. The activities aimed to instill environmental awareness from an early age through education on organic and inorganic waste sorting, compost-making practices, and recycling used buckets into trash bins.
The community service advocacy program continued into 2026. In commemoration of Earth Day on Saturday, April 25, 2026, an advocacy session was held at the RT 03 RW 01 Community Hall focusing on waste management awareness and evaluating the organic compost-making practices conducted in December 2025. The activity involved the same participants, including 18 children who had attended the workshop sessions in the previous semester. The results showed that participants already understood waste sorting but still lacked deeper understanding of organic compost production.
Therefore, it was recommended that future activities focus more on practical waste management work. The Earth Day commemoration was symbolically chosen to reinforce the program’s commitment to environmental preservation and ecosystem sustainability, particularly in the Sumber Riverbank area.
This series of community service activities is part of the Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) program. The initiative focuses on participatory mapping and environmental advocacy, especially in addressing waste management issues along the Sumber River area. Students involved in the program included Tjin Groot, Ilias Engel, Kiki Gerritje, Joost Gerardurs, Bartolomeo Pietro Giuseppe Contarini, Aurellia Nadine Alexandra, Chiki Satria Perdana, Faiz Hanuraga Febrianta Prayudhi, Levania Puspa Dewi Hasibuan, and Yusuf Eka Farras.
Through this series of activities, the program is expected to encourage sustainable collaboration among academics, government institutions, communities, and society in addressing urban environmental problems, particularly in riverbank areas.
HUMAS UNS
