Mindanao Journal of Science and Technology Vol.

18 (1) (2020) 164-186

Low-Cost Garbage Level Monitoring System in

Drainages Using Internet of Things in the Philippines
Rio Allen G. Parilla, Oliver Joseph C. Leorna, Roces Dave P. Attos,
Maria Gemel B. Palconit and Jun-Jun A. Obiso*
Department of Electronics Engineering
Cebu Technological University – Cebu City
Cebu City, 6000 Philippines
*[email protected]

Date received: January 2, 2020

Revision accepted: March 12, 2020

Abstract
A common problem in a developing tropical country like the Philippines is the flooding
during downpours. One of the causes is the clogging of drainages due to garbage
accumulation, which results in overflowing. A countermeasure to minimize this
problem is the deployment of an internet of things-based garbage monitoring system.
In this system, the ultrasonic sensors were used to provide input data on the level of
the garbage in the drainage. These data were then transmitted to the web application
for visualization. A message, informing the status of the garbage level in real-time, was
sent to the registered user. Also, a strainer was used to serve as a stopper of the
accumulated garbage in the drainage. This strainer was set up in the middle of the
manhole so that the detected level of garbage and water would be compared. In
addition, the ultrasonic sensors were mounted on the top and the back of the strainer
to detect the garbage level and serve as a comparative sensor, respectively.
Furthermore, to assess the performance of the developed system, several tests were
conducted in Cebu City, Philippines. These tests included the short message service
delay, internet speed, and the garbage level. The results showed that the developed
system can effectively deliver its desired operations. However, since the system is
reliant on internet connectivity, it is highly recommended to use such in a 5G network.

Keywords: garbage monitoring, garbage collection, IoT-based garbage system, flood

control, flood monitoring

1. Introduction

As a tropical country, the Philippines experiences heavy rainfall from August

to December. Because of these heavy downpours, flooding is a perennial
problem in the lowland urban areas (Chen et al., 2017) like that in Cebu City.
In this city, flooding in the downtown areas is common even in times of
minimal downpours. As observed, the drainages easily overflow because of
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the very noticeable accumulation of garbage (Thanvisitthpon et al., 2020).

Several countermeasures had been implemented by the local government units
to address this garbage accumulation. Some of these were the scheduled
cleaning of the drainages. Also, the national government invested millions to
reconstruct the drainages to improve the performance of flood management
system. Also, several city ordinances had been passed for implementation by
the stakeholders. However, such problem has been recurring over the years.
In this light, it is crucial to develop a system that can monitor the garbage level
in real-time such that the concerned agency can be advised on the actual status
of garbage in the drainages. In this manner, timely garbage collection in
drainages can be achieved. The system should be low-cost so that the
government can install it in all drainages in Cebu City.

To effectively develop this garbage monitoring system, a thorough literature

review was done. Several articles had presented about the garbage monitoring
using electronic means. Shyam et al. (2017) developed an IoT-based system
for trash bins with smart features. It has an ultrasonic sensors to determine the
level of the garbage inside the bin. With IoT, the user can have a real-time
monitoring of garbage level status. One of the limitations of the system was
the inability to distinguish solid ond liquid wastes. Also, similar innovations
had been created that include the sending of short message service (SMS)
using the global systems for mobile (GSM) module to the users containing the
key information about the status of the trash bin (Ghadage and Doshi, 2017;
Jain and Bagherwal, 2017; Malapur and Pattanshetti, 2017; Kumar et al.,
2017). Their works excluded the use of visual indicators to advise the user on
the status of the trash bin and a feature that is capable of segregating the types
of wastes. Moreover, these inventions had no real-time monitoring on the trash
bin status since they were not cloud-based.

A more sophisticated innovation with a real-time monitoring system was

presented by Sathish et al. (2017). It incorporated a flame sensor to detect the
fire and a moisture sensor to segregate the wet and the dry garbage. A future
enhancement of the innovation was to use solar panels to conserve energy
utilization.

Another garbage monitoring system was made by Idwan et al. (2016). It

utilized general packet radio service (GPRS) in providing the details of the
trash bin. Such system maximized wireless networking technologies to
optimize solid waste management through the use of smart dumpsters coupled

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with waste level sensors. Despite its more advanced features, the system was
not tested in large-scale settings.

A trash monitoring system in a trash bin with a force sensor application was
developed by Aziz et al. (2015). The purpose of this sensor was to monitor the
weight of the trash bins. The system utilized image processing concepts to
monitor garbage levels. An identified possible improvement of the system was
to add color information to further enhance its classification accuracy.

Created by Bharadwaj et al. (2016), a more advanced garbage monitoring

system used Long Range (LoRa) technology. It can send data via the gateway
and then transmit it to the cloud over the internet utilizing the Message Queue
Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol. The system could be further
developed by including a feature that provides an automatic visual indicator
to the user regarding the status of the trash bin. Integrating spectroscopy
technology, a garbage monitoring was made by Thakker and Narayanamoorthi
(2015). It primarily relied on the gathered data of the server as the user’s
ultimate source of information to have an effective route of garbage collection.
Despite its more cutting-edge features, it cannot send SMS at critical stages of
the bin.

Also investigated was the trash bin application of Gutierrez et al. (2015). In
this system, three Light Emitting Diodes (LED) were used to indicate the three
different levels of the trashes present in the trash bin. The system was based
on the Internet of Things (IoT) for the storage and processing of data.
However, the system failed to use sensitivity analysis of the different
parameters. This could have provided the system’s performance under
different operating conditions. A related system was also created by Haribabu
et al. (2017). It integrated a buzzer to give an alarm once the trash bin is full.
This system had the capability of segregating plastic dry waste and
biodegradable waste through the integration of methane and smell sensors. For
further advancements, the system needs to incorporate an automated
mechanism to pick the wastes in and around the trash bin.

Another innovation was published by Muyunda and Ibrahim (2017). This

innovation collects sensor data from each trash bin. It then displays the
collected data on the webpage to notify the concerned on the status of the
dedicated trash bins in target areas. Such innovation can also provide the best
route plan for effective garbage collection by the authorities. However, this
innovation lacks the basic features of alarm and visual indicators of garbage

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status. Folianto et al. (2015) developed a system that incorporated mesh

network and duty cycle features. It exploited the use of ZigBee technology in
garbage monitoring. It had three main components: smart bin, gateway, and
control station. The identified limitation of this work was that it was not tested
in indoor conditions.

The smart garbage monitoring and collection systems were quite numerous in
the extant literature. A good example of this was the one developed by
Ramson and Moni (2017). In this system, Wireless Monitoring Units (WMU)
was utilized in trash bins. The sensor in the WMU can detect the unfilled trash
level in the bin. The data were then sent to the Wireless Access Point Unit
(WAPU) for processing in the monitoring station. A possible improvement in
the evaluation of the system was to test it using both 4G and 5G networks.
Another IoT-based system for waste management was the works of Aleyadeh
and Taha (2018) and Mirchandani et al. (2017). The ultimate feature of these
works was its ability to provide an optimal solution for waste collection by
minimizing the time length of waste collection through smart means.
However, the architecture proposed by the work of Aleyadeh and Taha (2018)
is yet to be prototyped for actual implementation and testing. As to the
contribution of Mirchandani et al. (2017), there is a need to further test the
system using different types of wastes and dustbins to ensure that the weight
sensor used can effectively function in different types of wastes and dustbin
materials.

Other smart garbage monitoring developments were crafted by Chowdhury

and Chowdhury (2007), Hong et al. (2014), Karadimas et al. (2016) and
Vasagade et al. (2017). These works integrated the Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID), GSM, and Geographic Information System (GIS),
which provided advantages such as power minimization, low cost, and
accurate estimation with a tiny-load fingerprint. However, several loopholes
were identified. The communication between waste tags and readers, and
readers and back-ends were unidirectional in the system of Chowdhury and
Chowdhury (2007). The waste tags used were passive with a minimal storage
capacity. Also, there existed a disadvantage in the system developed by Hong
et al. (2014). It was noted that it needed maintenance cost and there was an
identified trade-off owing to the proposed system’s battery-based power
structure. As for the work of Karadimas et al. (2016), the tests conducted
should have been done at more granular level to consider the different types
of wastes. In the work of Vasagade et al. (2017), only basic features namely

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audio alarm and visual indicators, the wastes segregation capacity, and the
online monitoring of garbage status were incorporated.

Another smart system equipped with ultrasonic sensors and GPS features was
presented by Fei et al. (2017). It was dedicated to an efficient garbage
collection of garbage trucks. It could help in waste management by keeping
track of trash bin status and the location of trash collection trucks. Like any
other online system, there is still a need to test this system in both 4G and 5G
environments since it is primarily dependent on a cloud connection. Tiwari
and Nagarathna (2017) developed a solar-powered monitoring system that
could send its status to the Collection, Logistics, Efficiency, and Notification
(CLEAN) system dashboard. It could crush the garbage by the use of
Advanced Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) Machines (ARM) 7
controllers. The ARM 7 controllers actuated if the ultrasonic sensor detected
a full trash bin. It then triggered the motor for the crushing process. The system
was also capable of sending SMS to the registered user to inform the status of
the trash bin, allowing the motor to be activated. It had also the capability to
segregate the garbage as biodegradable or non-biodegradable. However, the
system was not subjected for testing with regards to the different types of
garbage to be crushed.

Cloud-based garbage monitoring innovations were also developed. Talha et

al. (2017) made a cloud-integrated wireless garbage management system for
a smart city. This could centrally monitor the temperature, humidity,
flammable gas concentrations, and garbage fill volumes. It could detect the
presence of fire in trash bins using wireless sensing nodes. The data were
gathered by the sensors and then sent to the central station using transmission
control protocol (TCP) or internet cache protocol (ICP) via GSM or GPRS.
The data was then monitored, analyzed, and stored in the cloud server for real-
time retrieval. Based on the evaluation, the system needs to integrate alarm
mechanisms and not just real-time monitoring. A similar system with similar
features but with added machine learning capability was created by Baby et
al. (2017). The built-in ‘machine-learning’ can gather data daily on the amount
of garbage generated in the area. Based on the gathered data, it could predict
the daily amount of waste that can be accumulated in the future. The analyzed
data were stored in the cloud in the form of a graph. The system could also
send emails and text messages to the users whenever the level of the waste in
the trash bins had exceeded the set threshold level. A good improvement of
the system was to implement it in a large scale scenario.

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A web-based garbage monitoring development was presented by Wijaya et al.

(2017). This could enable the authorities to graphically check the status of the
wastes on a daily, weekly, and yearly basis. It used a weight sensor to
determine the number of wastes inside the trash bin. A minimal limitation of
the system was the absence of a feature that segregates the types of wastes
inside the bin. Reddy et al. (2017) developed a similar and embedded system
that could detect the presence of harmful gases in trashes and inform the
people nearby. This innovation was a good example of garbage monitoring
using an embedded system. One disadvantage of the system was its inability
to monitor in real-time the status of the trash bin. Also, more sophisticated
system was carved out by Hannan et al. (2016). It maximized the usage of
content-based image retrieval features. It used the Gabor wavelet filter, gray
level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM), and gray level aura matrix (GLAM) in
determining the level of the trash present in a bin and its surroundings. A
technical limitation of the system was its image acquisition. There were areas
inside the bin that were considered as blind spots.

The concepts and applications of garbage monitoring and collection are very
well-pronounced in the extant literature. Numerous authors and inventors had
presented several works in the field of effective garbage management.
However, these contributions are mostly focused on trash bins with a minimal
development specific to garbage monitoring in urban drainages. Hence, it was
the primary intention of this paper to put forward a literature that describes the
deployment and installation of a low-cost garbage monitoring system in urban
drainages. The system as presented in this paper provided a solution in the
clogging of drainages due to the accumulation of garbage. In this manner, the
paper could contribute to the alleviation of floods in a developing country like
the Philippines.

2. Methodology

2.1 System Overview

The system overview is shown in Figure 1a. The monitoring and alert systems
as deployed in the actual drainage locations transmit the drainage status to the
cloud using the Internet of Things features. The user can do real-time web
monitoring via the smartphone. Also, the user can receive updates on the

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drainage status via SMS. The interconnectivity of the specific elements used
in the system is shown in Figure 2b.

(a)
IoT
O (b)
O
U U O
U

T T T
P
Visualized
U
P P T drainage status
U U
T T Received message
O
U
T
P
U
T

User interface
(Web Browsers)
PP Arduino Uno
Monitoring and P

RR
R

Alert System
O
C
E
S
S
processes data
OO
CC P
R
O
C Cloud server
EE E
S
S

stores data
SS
SS
IoT transmits data
P
R
O
C
E
S
S

Monitoring and
Alert System Web-monitoring SMS
I Ultrasonic
N sensor senses
P the garbage
U level
T Power supply of the system
Monitoring and
Alert System

Figure 1. The interconnectivity of the system elements

The monitoring and alert system consists two ultrasonic sensors as input
elements, Arduino Uno microcontroller, and IoT module. The power supply
is used to provide energy to the system. Such supply includes a buck converter.
Moreover, the ultrasonic sensors are used to detect the garbage level in the
drainages in real-time. These garbage level data are processed by the Arduino
Uno microcontroller. Such data are then transmitted to the cloud through the
IoT module. IoT module sends the data to the cloud server so that the
monitoring station with the web application can visualize the status and
condition of the drainage. Through the same IoT module, such a status of the
drainage is forwarded to the user in real-time using SMS notification. The
transmitted status includes the specific location of the drainage and its garbage
level. A pictorial diagram of the placement of elements of the monitoring and
alert system is shown in Figure 2.

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Ultrasonic sensors
Arduino Uno

IoT module

Figure 2. The system board with the connectivity of elements of the deployed
monitoring and alert system

2.2 Drainage Structure

The system was deployed in the three different locations within Cebu City,
Philippines: M.J. Cuenco Avenue, Eduardo Aboitiz Street, and Bonifacio
Street. The actual pictures of the drainages from the three locations before the
actual deployment are shown in Figures 3.

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 3. The actual drainage status of the manhole in M.J. Cuenco Avenue (a),
Eduardo Aboitiz Street (b), and Bonifacio Street (c) before actual system deployment

Before the actual deployment, the actual sizes of the manhole per drainage
were determined are indicated in Table 1.

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Table 1. The actual dimensions of the manholes of the three drainages

Area Size (cm)

M.J. Cuenco Avenue 91.44 x 78.74 x 92.71
Eduardo Aboitiz Street 127 x 55.88 x 66.04
Bonifacio Street 91.44 x 55.88 x 66.04

2.3 System Placement Model

The system model during deployment is shown in Figure 4. The system

cabinet (Figure 5) consisted the power supply system with the buck converter.
Such a cabinet also contained the Arduino Uno microcontroller and the IoT
module. Fixed in the traffic signpost, the cabinet was placed 2 m above the
ground to prevent it from submerging in water in cases of floods. Also, a
strainer was used as a stopper of the accumulated garbage in the drainage. The
strainer was set up in the middle of the manhole so that the detected level of
garbage and water would be compared. Furthermore, the ultrasonic sensors
were mounted on the top of the strainer and the back of the strainer. The sensor
on the top of the strainer was used to detect the garbage level while the sensor
at the back of the strainer was used as a comparative sensor.

System cabinet

Supply
Arduino
Buck converter

Comparative
sensor
Strainer Garbage level
sensor
Manhole

Culvert

Figure 4. The system deployment model

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Box walling
Power supply

System
board
Hinges

Box enclosure
Screws

Box
frame
Figure 5. The system cabinet containing the Arduino Uno microcontroller,
IoT module, and power supply

2.4 System Deployment

The system was deployed in the three different locations as shown in Figure
6. The deployments were done on a sunny day. Before the actual mounting of
ultrasonic sensors and the strainers, the garbage inside the drainages was
removed.

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 6. Actual system deployment at M.J. Cuenco Avenue (a), Eduardo Aboitiz
Street (b), and Bonifacio Street (c)

2.5 System Cost Consideration

In the construction of the system cabinet, the researchers used recycled and
disposable materials for the box frames, box walling, box enclosure, screws,

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and hinges. Also, the connector wires as used were taken from the disposable
connector wires from an electronics engineering laboratory. With the
utilization of these available recycled materials in the system, it can be
considered as lower in cost compared to those systems created from brand new
materials.

2.6 Garbage Levelling

The leveling of the garbage in the drainages was standardized as shown in

Table 2. Regarding the Department of Engineering and Public Works, the
standard size of the drainage in Cebu City is 60 cm in height, 60 cm in width,
and 60 cm in length. Based on these dimensions, in the absence of water, the
maximum computed volume of garbage that can be accumulated in the
drainage beneath the manhole’s cover is 216, 000 cm3. Furthermore, the depth
was considered as the distance from the ultrasonic sensor to the garbage. When
the garbage level reaches level 3 (critical level), a notification is sent via SMS
in real-time informing the user that the drainage needs to be cleaned up. Since
the drainages had different dimensions, the garbage leveling differs in each
location.

Table 2. The garbage level with a corresponding equivalent status

Garbage Level
Level No. Status
(M.J. Cuenco) (Aboitiz & Bonifacio)
1 93 cm 66 cm Not critical
2 75 cm 53 cm Slightly critical
3 56 cm 40 cm Critical
4 38 cm 27 cm Highly critical
5 19 cm 13 cm Very Highly Critical

2.7 Actual System Data Gathering Procedure

Figure 7 shows the actual setup of the data gathering from the hardware system
to the SMS notification. The hardware system was composed of the Arduino
Uno microcontroller, ultrasonic sensors, and the IoT module. The collected
data were transmitted by the IoT to the web application at a two-minute
interval. The web application received the data and stored these in the
database. Through the query process, the web application extracts the needed
data from the database. Moreover, via the same web application, a text
message containing the garbage level status is sent to the registered user via
the subscriber iTexmo.com.

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Database
(MySQL)

Hardware System Web Application Text Message

(Aduino, Sensor, IoT) (128.199.168.148) (iTexmo.com)

Figure 7. The data gathering procedure

2.8 Validation of the System Connection

Before the deployment of the system, validations of the system connection

using the internet were performed. The validations were done to determine the
number of errors and failures occurred when the system sends data to the web
application. The results were seen in the serial monitor of the Arduino
Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Such IDE established the
connection between the Wi-Fi Module and web application. In this validation
procedure, 30 connectivity trials were made.

2.9 SMS Time Delay Test

The purpose of this test was to determine the transmission delays of the SMS
from the time of transmission to the time of reception. This was done to
identify the best network pair to be used in the system. This was performed by
transmitting a “hello” message from location 1 (M.J. Cuenco Avenue) to
location 2 (Eduardo Aboitiz Street). The transmission and the reception time
was recorded using synchronized and calibrated timers. The difference in the
transmission and reception times served as the transmission delays. This
process was repeated for 30 times using different cellular networks. The
available cellular networks were Globe, Sun, and Smart.

2.10 Internet Speed Test

This test was to identify the internet speeds of the two available internet
service providers in the area namely, Globe and Smart. It was crucial to
identify the internet speed to properly select the network that could provide
higher speeds in data transmission from the IoT module. The test was
performed by recording the upload and download bit rates in terms of megabit
per second (Mbps) of the two networks at location 1. The data of the internet
speeds of the networks were recorded at the same time (7 PM).

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2.11 Garbage Level Test

The data obtained in the garbage level test originated from the ultrasonic
sensors. The ultrasonic sensor automatically emitted a signal in the kilohertz
range. This triggered the transmission of a high-level signal of at least 10
microseconds in duration. As the signal hits the garbage or water, the signal is
reflected in the ultrasonic sensor. The propagation time of the signal from its
transmission until the reception of the ultrasonic sensor was computed. Such
time information was used to determine the depth or level of the garbage or
water using Equation 1.

(Thigh level )(Ssound ) (1)

Dt =
2

where:
Dt = test distance, m
Thigh level = high level time, s
Ssound = speed of sound (343 m/s)

The computed distance was used to determine the extent of the garbage level.
The greater the computed distance, the farther is the level of the garbage and
water from the ultrasonic sensor. This indicates that the status of garbage or
water is not that critical. Conversely, the shorter the computed distance, the
closer the distance of the water and/or garbage to the ultrasonic sensor. Such
status is very critical that needs immediate action from the concerned user.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1 Validation of the System Connection

In the validation, the study conducted 30 trials of connectivity. In these trials,

the system was able to send all the data without failure. Figure 8 shows the
serial monitor of the Arduino IDE wherein the validations were made. The
establishment of a connection between the IoT module (ESP8266) and the web
application was made possible through the Attention (AT) commands. At line
0, AT command printed OK means that the ESP8266 was ready to establish a
connection to the Wi-Fi. Line 1, AT+CWMODE =1 printed OK means that
the ESP8266 was looking for internet access being programmed. Line 2,
AT+CWJAP=” Anime”, “qwerty123” printed OK implies that the ESP8266

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had found the programmed network where it established its connection in

sending the data. Printed “Connected” signals that the ESP8266 had a
connection with the network. The “garbage Ping: 28 cm” and the “water sonar
Ping: 28 cm” indicate that the data were gathered by the sensors and were
successfully transmitted to the web application. Also, at line 3,
AT+CIPMUX=1 suggests that there were multiple data to be sent. Also, at
line 4, AT+CIPSTART =0, “TCP”,”128.199.168.148”, 80 printed OK means
that there was a sending of the data to the TCP-Internet Protocol (IP) with an
address of 128.199.168.148 in port 80. Moreover, at line 5, AT+CIPSEND=0
printed OK means that the data were already sent to the TCP-IP. Lastly,
AT+CIPCLOSE=0 printed OK implies that the ESP8266 was going to
temporarily cut-off its connection to the WiFi and be prepared for the next
transmission of data.

Figure 8. A display in the serial monitor of the Arduino IDE showing

the establishment of the connection to the web application

3.2 SMS Time Delay Tests

Table 3 is the summary of the SMS time delays of the three cellular network
providers. As noted, the average time delays of the three networks had
minimal differences. Moreover, in terms of standard deviation, the three
networks had also very slight differences. These differences can be considered
negligible for the reason that it was roughly one second. Hence, any of the
network pairs can be used in the system. Figure 9 shows the time series ploy
of the three network’s time delays.

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Table 3. Comparison of the three networks considering

SMS time delays (seconds [s])

Globe Sun Smart

Average SMS Time Delay (s) 9.78 8.58 10.04
Standard Deviation (s) 1.05 0.69 1.05

Time delay (s) of the three networks

Delay (s)

Number of trials

Figure 9. The time series plot of the SMS time delays of the three networks

Internet speed tests were conducted to assess the reliability of the network
speeds in terms of upload and download bit rates. This was to ensure that the
IoT module can effectively transfer data to the cloud server. Table 4 shows
the comparative matrix of the average upload and download speeds of the
networks used in the deployment. As observed, there were significant
differences between the upload and download speeds of the two network
locations as reflected in Figure 10. These significant differences can be
primarily attributed to several factors like the proximity distance of the
respective cellular sites within the test areas, network traffic, time of the day,
and among others. Thus, the choice of the internet network to be used in the
system is left to the decision of the users. The users should also reflect on
factors like costs and customer services in the final choice of the internet
service provider.

Table 4. The upload and download bit rates of internet providers in Cebu City

Globe Smart
Upload Download Upload Download
Average Speeds (Mbps) 11.62 7.11 0.87 0.46
Standard Deviation (Mbps) 3.52 2.40 0.60 0.39

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Speed (Mbps)

Download Upload Download Upload

Globe Smart

Figure 10. Box plot of the internet speed test considering bit rates of the networks

3.3 Garbage Level Tests

Figure 11 shows the series plot of the garbage level in the drainage when the
system was deployed at M.J. Cuenco Avenue. As noticed, the garbage level
has changed over time considering 100 data samples. The primary reason for
these variations was the random changes in the water level in the drainage and
the actual quantity of garbage in it.
Level (cm)

Number of gathered data

Figure 11. The series plot of the garbage level in the drainage at
M.J. Cuenco Avenue

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Figure 12 shows the garbage levels relative to the water levels for 100
samples. As noted, the distance of the garbage levels concerning the ultrasonic
sensors was lower as compared to the distance of the water levels to the same
sensors. Such results were true as expected since the garbage was usually on
top of the actual water levels.

Actual Garbage Sensed Level (cm) Actual Water Garbage Level (cm)

Figure 12. Cluster-column line graph of the actual levels of the garbage and
the water in the drainage at M.J. Cuenco Avenue

Figure 13 shows the series plot of the garbage level in the drainage when the
system was deployed at Eduardo Aboitiz. As noticed, the garbage level has
changed over time considering 100 data samples. It is also shown in Figure 14
that the levels of water and garbage were equal all the time. It indicated that
the garbage and water level in this area were constant during the conduct of
the experiments. The sensed garbage level was a water level only for there
were no changes in the level in the side of the garbage. Another observation
in this area was that the level sensed changed at no constant time. It implied
that the location of the drainage has a sub-pipe connected to that manhole that
threw water wastes from the inner households in the area. Hence, the changes
in the level of the garbage and water were affected by the location of the
manhole being experimented.

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Level (cm)

Number of gathered data

Figure 13. The series plot of the actual garbage levels in the drainage at
Eduardo Aboitiz Street

Actual Garbage Sensed Level (cm) Actual Water Garbage Level (cm)

Figure 14. Cluster-column line graph of the actual levels of the garbage and the
water in the drainage at Eduardo Aboitiz Street

Figure 15 shows the series plot of the garbage level in the drainage when the
system was deployed at Bonifacio Street. As noticed, the garbage level
changed over time considering 100 data samples. The primary reason for these
variations was the random changes in the water level in the drainage and the
actual quantity of garbage in it.

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Level (cm)

Number of gathered data

Figure 15. The series plot of the actual garbage levels in the drainage at
Bonifacio Street

Figure 16 shows the garbage levels relative to the water levels for 100
samples. As noted, the distance of the garbage levels concerning the ultrasonic
sensors was lower as compared to the distance of the water levels to the same
sensors. Such results were true, as expected, since the garbage was usually on
top of the actual water levels. The graph further shows that when the garbage
level changed, the detected level stayed at the level in multiple minutes before
it changed. The water level of the drainage affected the change of the gathered
data from the drainage.

Actual Garbage Sensed Level (cm) Actual Water Garbage Level

(cm)

Figure 16. Cluster-column line graph of the actual levels of the garbage and the
water in the drainage at Bonifacio Street

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4. Conclusion and Recommendation

In the Philippines, the accumulated garbage in the drainages is one of the

primary causes of floods in urban areas. In these areas, a bold step to
countermeasure this perennial problem is to use a garbage level monitoring
system. Hence, a garbage level monitoring system using IoT was developed
in this paper. This system, particularly the system cabinet, is considered low-
cost since it is made from recycled and disposable materials. Based on
experiment results, the developed system was effective in performing its
desired functions. Specifically, the system provided the user with the status of
the garbage level in particular drainage in real-time. This was achieved by
integrating the different elements and technologies such as ultrasonic sensors,
IoT module, web application, GSM module, and among others. These were
systematically interconnected to the cloud in such a way the user could
monitor the real-time status of the garbage level in the drainages. The
appropriate authority could then collect the garbage from the monitored
drainages. With the integration of the different components to establish an
effective garbage level monitoring system in drainages, the novelty of the
developed system from previously developed ones is evident.

Though the system offers significant contributions in the aspect of monitoring

the garbage levels in urban drainages in Cebu City, Philippines, several system
limitations were pinpointed for future research. First is to integrate a robotic
mechanism to collect the garbage in the drainage once the garbage level
reaches the critical level. Another suggestion is to further enhance the
system’s smart features, particularly in determining the exact garbage level
and in distinguishing garbage and water levels. Moreover, the system’s power
supply should be non-disruptive. Hence, it is proposed to use solar energy as
the primary power source to operate the system. As experienced by most
Filipinos, internet connectivity in the Philippines is fluctuating at different
times of the day with the present 4G technology. Thus, it is advised that the
developed system should be deployed using 5G technology since it is mainly
dependent on internet connectivity.

5. Acknowledgement

The authors would like to express their heartfelt gratitude to the faculty
members from the Department of Electronics Engineering, Cebu

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Technological University – Main Campus for contributing to the success of

this study. They were Engr. Gilbert Silagpo, Engr. Joel Tadle, and Engr.
Arwin Visitacion.

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