Universitas Islam Sultan Agung (UNISSULA) implements a location-specific strategy for managing the campus lake and its associated water catchment environment.

The strategy integrates the management of water flow, sedimentation and erosion, water quality, pollution prevention, routine lake maintenance, habitat protection, vegetation, biodiversity, and aquatic organisms.

This approach recognises that maintaining an aquatic ecosystem requires more than managing the water body itself. The physical characteristics of the surrounding catchment, the chemical quality of the water, and the biological communities living within the ecosystem are managed as interconnected components.

By 2025, these principles had been incorporated into UNISSULA’s institutional aquatic ecosystem management framework and implemented through recurring lake maintenance, direct water-quality monitoring, pollution-prevention measures, and management of aquatic biodiversity documented within the campus lake.

Location-Specific Aquatic Ecosystem

The UNISSULA campus lake is the primary local aquatic ecosystem covered by this management approach.

As a water body located within the university environment, the lake interacts with surrounding drainage, water flow, vegetation, land surfaces, and university activities.

For this reason, UNISSULA manages the lake together with the environmental conditions that may affect water entering, leaving, or accumulating within the aquatic ecosystem.

The management strategy therefore considers the lake as part of a wider campus water catchment system, rather than treating it only as an isolated body of water.

Institutional Framework for Catchment Management

UNISSULA formalised its approach to aquatic ecosystem management through Circular Letter No. 9015/J/SA/IX/2025.

The institutional framework requires university units to minimise physical alterations to aquatic environments, including changes associated with:

• Water flow;
• Sedimentation;
• Erosion;
• Water channels;
• Rivers;
• Ponds;
• Coastal environments; and
• Associated habitats.

The same framework also requires the protection of water quality and biological conditions within aquatic ecosystems.

These provisions establish an integrated basis for managing both the physical catchment and ecological condition of aquatic environments associated with the university.

Managing Water Flow, Sedimentation, and Erosion

Physical management is an important component of the campus lake strategy.

Changes in drainage, sediment movement, erosion, or water flow can influence lake depth, water quality, habitat availability, and the organisms living within the ecosystem.

UNISSULA therefore requires activities to minimise disturbances to water flow, sedimentation, erosion, water channels, ponds, and associated aquatic habitats.

This enables catchment management to be connected directly with the protection of the aquatic ecosystem.

Management Based on Local Aquatic Biodiversity

UNISSULA’s strategy also considers the aquatic organisms documented within the campus lake.

The lake has documented management activities involving tawes and nila fish, carried out in cooperation with the Semarang City Fisheries Service.

A biodiversity-support activity involving 10,000 tawes and nila fingerlings was conducted in the UNISSULA lake environment to support the sustainability and ecological balance of the lake ecosystem.

This activity provides documented evidence of aquatic species specifically associated with the local water body and demonstrates that biological considerations form part of lake management.

Public evidence:

https://unissula.ac.id/blog/peringati-hari-bumi-kedokteran-unissula-tebar-10-000-benih-ikan

The tawes and nila are presented as documented aquatic species managed within the UNISSULA campus lake, rather than being described as endemic or protected species.

Continuity of Biodiversity Management

The documented aquatic-species activity forms part of a broader and continuing approach to maintaining the campus lake.

Its importance lies not only in the individual activity, but in demonstrating that UNISSULA had already incorporated aquatic organisms and ecological balance into management of the lake before the institutional framework was strengthened in 2025.

By 2025, aquatic biodiversity protection had been explicitly incorporated into the university’s institutional management framework.

Circular Letter No. 9015/J/SA/IX/2025 requires university activities to protect:

Habitats, vegetation, biodiversity, and aquatic organisms.

This connects previously documented species management with the university’s continuing ecosystem-management strategy.

Routine Maintenance Every Six Months

Implementation of the strategy includes routine maintenance of the UNISSULA campus lake every six months.

The recurring maintenance schedule provides a practical mechanism for maintaining the physical condition of the lake and its surrounding environment.

Routine maintenance enables the university to observe and address conditions such as accumulated material, changes around the lake environment, and other physical conditions that could affect water quality or habitat function.

The six-month cycle demonstrates that lake management is a continuing institutional practice rather than a one-time environmental activity.

Water-Quality Monitoring

The management strategy is supported by direct monitoring of the physicochemical condition of the campus lake.

UNISSULA uses a digital multi-parameter water-quality meter to monitor indicators including:

• pH;
• Water temperature;
• Electrical conductivity;
• Salinity; and
• Related water-quality parameters.

Monitoring equipment and its digital interface provide measurable information on changes in water conditions.

A documented measurement, for example, recorded a pH value of approximately 6.27, together with temperature data.

These measurements are used as environmental monitoring information and are considered together with other observations rather than being treated individually as a complete assessment of ecological health.

Connecting Water Quality and Aquatic Species

Water quality is directly relevant to the organisms living within the campus lake.

Changes in pH, temperature, conductivity, salinity, pollution levels, or other physicochemical conditions may affect aquatic organisms and habitat suitability.

UNISSULA therefore combines biodiversity management with water-quality monitoring.

The management sequence can be described as:

Identify the aquatic ecosystem and organisms → Monitor water conditions → Maintain the lake and catchment → Reduce physical and chemical disturbance → Protect habitat and biodiversity

This creates a direct connection between catchment management and the biological condition of the local aquatic ecosystem.

Prevention of Chemical Alteration

The institutional strategy also addresses chemical pressures on aquatic environments.

University activities are required to prevent changes in water quality through responsible management of:

Wastewater, chemicals, hazardous waste, and other pollution sources.

Protecting the chemical condition of water is particularly important for maintaining aquatic biodiversity because the biological condition of the lake depends on suitable environmental conditions.

Pollution Prevention Within the Catchment

UNISSULA also implements wider pollution-prevention measures to reduce potential contamination from activities surrounding aquatic environments.

Circular Letter No. 9014/J/SA/IX/2025 requires university units to prevent direct disposal of waste, plastics, chemicals, hazardous waste, and wastewater into water channels, rivers, coastal areas, or other environments that could pollute aquatic ecosystems.

The requirements also apply to service providers, vendors, and third parties operating within the university environment.

These controls reduce potential land-based pressures within the wider water catchment and complement direct lake management.

Protection of Habitat and Vegetation

Aquatic species cannot be managed independently of their habitat.

UNISSULA’s institutional framework therefore explicitly requires protection of:

Habitat, vegetation, biodiversity, and aquatic organisms.

Vegetation and habitat surrounding aquatic environments can contribute to ecological stability, reduce physical disturbance, and provide environmental conditions that support aquatic organisms.

The management strategy therefore combines species considerations with protection of the broader ecosystem.

Integrated Physical, Chemical, and Biological Management

The UNISSULA approach integrates three main dimensions.

Physical management includes water flow, sedimentation, erosion, drainage and water channels, lake conditions, and associated habitats.

Chemical management includes water-quality monitoring, wastewater control, chemical management, hazardous-waste management, and pollution prevention.

Biological management includes habitat, vegetation, biodiversity, and aquatic organisms documented within the local ecosystem.

All three dimensions are incorporated into the institutional aquatic ecosystem framework in place by 2025.

Together, they provide an integrated management strategy for the campus lake and its associated catchment.

Location-Specific Management Approach

The strategy is specifically connected with conditions found at the UNISSULA campus lake.

The location has:

• A defined water body;
• Documented aquatic organisms;
• Surrounding vegetation and habitat;
• Measurable physicochemical water conditions; and
• A recurring maintenance programme.

Management actions are therefore linked to the characteristics of the actual ecosystem rather than being applied only as general environmental principles.

The relationship can be expressed as:

UNISSULA campus catchment → Campus lake → Water conditions → Habitat → Local aquatic organisms → Management and monitoring

This location-specific approach provides the basis for maintaining the ecological function of the campus aquatic environment.

Adaptive Management of the Campus Lake

The strategy follows an adaptive management approach.

Environmental conditions are observed through monitoring, while routine maintenance provides opportunities for practical intervention.

Institutional requirements relating to water flow, sedimentation, erosion, water quality, habitat, biodiversity, and aquatic organisms provide the management framework.

The process can therefore be described as:

Monitor → Evaluate → Maintain → Prevent pollution → Protect habitat → Maintain aquatic biodiversity

This allows management measures to respond to observed environmental conditions.

Evidence of Implementation

1. UNISSULA has an institutional aquatic ecosystem management framework in place by 2025 through Circular Letter No. 9015/J/SA/IX/2025.
2. The framework addresses catchment-related physical processes, including water flow, sedimentation, erosion, water channels, ponds, and associated habitats.
3. The strategy is applied to the UNISSULA campus lake, an aquatic ecosystem directly located within and associated with the university.
4. The campus lake is maintained every six months, providing recurring implementation of the management strategy.
5. UNISSULA directly monitors lake-water conditions using digital multi-parameter equipment measuring pH, temperature, electrical conductivity, salinity, and related indicators.
6. Aquatic species are specifically documented within the lake-management context. Tawes and nila have been managed within the campus lake in collaboration with the Semarang City Fisheries Service to support ecological balance.
7. The 2025 institutional framework explicitly requires protection of habitat, vegetation, biodiversity, and aquatic organisms, connecting aquatic species management with the broader ecosystem-management strategy.
8. The framework also requires protection of water quality from wastewater, chemicals, hazardous waste, and other pollution sources.
9. Additional pollution-prevention measures prohibit the direct discharge of waste and pollutants into aquatic environments, reducing land-based pressures within the water catchment.