Malaysian Journal of Analytical Sciences Vol 19 No 5 (2015): 1056 - 1064

 

 

 

APPLICATION OF EXCEL-VBA FOR COMPUTATION OF WATER QUALITY INDEX AND AIR POLLUTANT INDEX

 

(Penggunaan Excel-VBA untuk Pengiraan Indeks Kualiti Air dan Indeks Pencemaran Udara)

 

Ismail Zainal Abidin, Hafizan Juahir*, Azman Azid, Ahmad Dasuki Mustafa, Fazureen Azaman

 

East Coast Environmental Research Institute (ESERI),

Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin,

Gong Badak Campus, 21300 Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia

 

*Corresponding author: hafizanjuahir@unisza.edu.my

 

 

Received: 14 April 2015; Accepted: 9 July 2015

 

 

Abstract

In Malaysia, there are two main indices which are Water Quality Index (WQI) and Air Pollutant Index (API). These indices are used as an indicator for the water quality and ambient air quality status of the environment. In conducting research regarding water and air quality, lots of time has been used to conduct other activities, an application to calculate the indices might come in handy. This project aims to construct an application for the computation of WQI and API using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) available in Microsoft Excel. VBA is actually a programming language of Microsoft Excel and can be used to write programming and run through in an Excel workbook. The user only required to enter the value for each parameter and then press “OK” to automatically calculate the index. This will provide instance result without wasting time just to refer to the class standard and other formula. The application also has been used as a teaching tool for the secondary students. An environmental based race game called Young Environmental Scientist (YES) Explorace was conducted by Environmental East Coast Research Institute (ESERI) where secondary student are invited as the participant. The application not only provides early exposure to the environmental pollution, but also exposure to the application of computer sciences to the student.

 

Keywords: water quality index, air pollution index, visual basic application, environment, programming

 

Abstrak

Di Malaysia terdapat dua indek utama iaitu Indek Kualiti Air (IKA) dan Index Pencemar Udara (IPU). Indek ini digunakan sebagai penunjuk bagi status kualiti air dan udara alam sekitar.  Ketika melakukan penyelidikan berkaitan kualiti air dan udara, banyak masa akan digunakan untuk melakukan aktiviti-aktiviti lain, satu applikasi untuk mengira kualiti indek pasti akan membantu penyelidik. Projek ini bertujuan untuk mencipta satu aplikasi untuk pengiraan IKA dan IPU mengunakan “Visual Basic for Application (VBA)” yang terdapat di dalam Microsoft Excel. VBA merupakan bahasa pemprograman di dalam Microsoft Excel yang digunakan untuk mencipta applikasi dengan hanya menggunakan buku kerja Excel. Pengguna hanya perlu memasukkan nilai untuk setiap parameter dan seterusnya menekan butang “OK” untuk mengira indek secara automatik. Ini akan memberikan keputusan dengan pantas seterusnya mengelakkan masa terbuang dengan terpaksa merujuk kepada formula-formula. Aplikasi ini juga telah digunakan sebagai alat pembelajaran untuk pelajar sekolah menengah. Satu permainan eksplorasi yang dipanggil Eksplorasi Saintis Alam Sekitar Muda (YES) telah dilaksanakan oleh Institut Penyelidikan Alam Sekitar Pantai Timur (ESERI) di mana pelajar ini dijemput untuk menyertainya. Aplikasi ini bukan sahaja digunakan untuk memberikan pendedahan mengenai pencemaran alam sekitar, bahkan untuk memberi pendedahan mengenai sains komputer kepada pelajar terbabit.

 

Kata kunci: indeks kualiti air, indeks penemaran udara, applikasi visual asas, alam sekitar, pemprograman

 

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