Land Subsidence: Increased Vulnerability to Increasing Sea Level Rise in Indonesia

Abstract: 

Land subsidence is one of the world's underrated problems at this moment. Several cities in several countries are already experiencing land-subsidence, among others are Indonesia, Netherland, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, and China. Several coastal cities in the northern part of Java Island and the peatland area in some districts in Sumatra and Kalimantan Island areas of Indonesia are increasingly sinking. The areas are regularly inundated by sea flooding during high tide. Many villages, industrial sites, and public infrastructures have been regularly inundated and as an effect, parts of them were damaged and became under-utilized. Land subsidence is caused by water extractions from the ground and exploitation of natural gas, which lowers the land surface downwards. It even lowers the land in some areas below the river or sea level. Sea level rise due to climate change is further contributing to flooding risks and will further exacerbate the risk in the future. Coordinated action to monitor, to adapt, and to mitigate land-subsidence and to mainstreaming it into a development plan is urgently needed. The Indonesian roadmap of adaptation and mitigation to land-subsidence was launched on September 19, 2019, during the International Conference on Land-Subsidence in Jakarta. It resulted from more than a one-year collaboration between the Coordinating Ministry of Maritime Affair, Partnership for Resilience Program (led by Wetland Indonesia, supported by Red-Cross Climate Centre), a multi-stakeholder working group of sectoral ministries, government agencies, universities, and civil society organizations.

The presentation will assist the audience in understanding the hazard of land-subsidence, its main cause, its impact and plan to anticipate it. It is expected that the audience will be inspired to learn more about land-subsidence in their own country and to initiate or to be part of an in-country coalition in developing plans and strategies to anticipate the land-subsidence. Many countries are experiencing land-subsidence in some of their cities, among others are Netherland, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, and China. Some have properly monitored and mitigated it, and some had yet succeeded.

Speaker(s): 

• Hosted by Susan Lusiana (Wetland Indonesia/YLBI) and P. Raja Siregar (Red-Cross Climate Centre)

Time Slot: 8:15 - 8:30 CET

Language: English

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