How Tidar Hill Contributes to Magelang Municipality's Fresh Air Need?

Aerial view of Tidar Botanical Garden surrounded by urban settlements in Magelang Municipality, Central Java. | Photo: Pemkot Magelang.

TIDAR Botanical Garden, often shortened to Tidar Hill, is the only forest in Magelang Municipality, Central Java.

The 503-meter-high hill is surrounded by high density urban settlements, commercial area, Military Academy, and a golf course.

Today, the 70-hectare garden houses 110 plant species, in which 50 of them are flowering and fruit-bearing plants, and tubers.

Magelang Municipality, the district where Tidar Hill is situated, becomes one of Indonesia's smallest cities. The town covers an area of only 18.12 square kilometers.

Its population density is approximately seven thousand people per-square kilometer, making it the second most densely populated district in the province of Central Java.

Everyday, during the morning and afternoon rush hours, a familiar sight appears on Jalan Sudirman and Jalan Ikhlas, on the east side of Tidar Hill. 

Rows of motorcycles and cars crowd the streets, releasing vehicle exhaust emissions, major contributors to air pollution in the city.

Here is each tree on Tidar Hill play a role as a "super hero".

The trees will use their power to remove the harmful gases like exhaust emissions, including carbon dioxide from the air.

By doing so, they make the air cleaner and healthier to breathe.

The trees will simultaneously show their ability to provide an essential of life for all living things: oxygen. 

It is proposed that one large tree can provide a day's supply of oxygen for up to four people.

THE SEAS, through their phytoplankton, are the most important sources of oxygen to living matters, especially human. 

The Ecology Global Network wrote that all marine plants, including phytoplankton, together produce between 70 to 80 percent of the oxygen in the atmosphere.

National Geographic claimed that half of the Earth's oxygen need is supplied by phytoplankton in the seas.

Based on these reports, hence, marine phototrophs account for 50 to 80 percent of the Earth's oxygen production.

With regard to terestrial oxygen production, NASA reports, 30 percent of the land is covered by trees, and as much as 45 percent of the carbon stored on land, is tied up in forests. 

So on land, trees are definitely large contributors to oxygen production.[sahrudin]