October 5, 2020
River flooding in Jakarta
Since 1949, Jakarta is facing massive industrial and urban growth due to new colonisations at the Ciliwung River’s mouth. As Jakarta became one of the most important industrial centres in Indonesia, devastating effects of river floods also increased. These two factors may seem irrelevant at first sight, but actually urbanization stimulates river flood events to increase. With changing land use due to rapid urbanization, soil permeability decreases, retention time of water in the environment decreases, deforestation occurs. Also, when changes in precipitation patterns are combined with these factors, Jakarta faces catastrophic effects of river flooding. One of the most important factors that increases the damage of these natural disasters is the lack of infrastructure with appropriate legislations. Applicable solution strategies to decrease the damage of flood on Jakarta includes; institutional measures such as new legislations and public education and technical measures such as infrastructure installation, watershed planning, wastewater management, natural resources management. From an environmental perspective, this study emphasizes river flooding problems of Jakarta and brings solutions on increasing the resilience of the city for a sustainable future.