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Advanced Civil and Environmental Engineering Lecture

Name
: Ni Made Pertiwi Jaya
Student Number : 14-8710-601-2
Study Program : Division of Environmental Science and Engineering, Graduate School of
Science and Technology, Yamaguchi University

The Balance between Flood Control and Ecosystem Conservation in Indonesia

As a country which has a tropical climate with high intensity of rainfall, some regions in
Indonesia are vulnerable to flood disaster. There are at least 11 provinces of 34 provinces in
Indonesia are identified as having the potential for flooding, namely Aceh, North Sumatra,
West Sumatra, Banten, Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, East Java, South
Sulawesi and West Kalimantan (Hidayat, 2014).
In general, the flood caused by natural factors and human activities related to the use of
natural resources resulting in lower hydrological watershed ecosystem function. Natural
factors mainly due to the extremely high intensity of rainfall, condition of watershed
geomorphology, and tide. While the human factor due to changes in land use, drainage
infrastructure, government and public institutions that have not been good.
Watershed degradation impact on the infiltration resulting in increased of surface runoff and
reduced replenishment of groundwater, then resulting in an increase in river flow during the
rainy season drastically. In extreme circumstances the damage will become big floods in the
rainy season. Therefore, flood control is closely related to watershed conservation.

Factors of the Occurrences of Flood


Most of the flood events that occurred in the major cities in Indonesia such as Jakarta,
Yogyakarta, Semarang, Surabaya and Medan due to the degradation or damage of land which
is caused by erosion, the criticality of land, and land use that is not in accordance with the
land use capability. Every year during the rainy season, the cities are always flooded, an
average of 10-12 times/year (Polontalo, 2008).
It is highly influenced by the conditions in the upstream watershed. The critical area in the
upstream watershed is getting wider so that the presence of flood is increasing. Reduced of
catchment areas due to the development of residential areas, industrial and so on in the
suburbs to the city center is also a cause of flood. In addition, the incidence of flood caused

by the constriction of wet sectional of the tributaries due to the occurrence of silting, the
number of slum areas that occur around the banks, and due to very poor drainage conditions.

Flood Control Activities


Meanwhile, the flood control activities that have been done by Indonesias government and
institution are still focused on the flow of the river course (in-stream) such as river
improvement and construction of flood channel or channels (floodway), whereas the river
basin management (off-stream) that is the maintenance in the upstream watershed including
work conservation, manufacture of check dam, infiltration ponds and others have not done so
in an integrated manner (Rathna, 2008).
On the other hand, a watershed in the region has a strategic importance in the upstream,
namely the availability and continuity of drinking water sources from the Regional Water
Company (PDAM) and the downstream is important as the city security, industrial and port
security.

Ecosystem Conservation in Flood Control


In this regard, the direction of conservation and land use in each subzone is indispensable. It
is intended that the criticality or land damage can be reduced, so that the flood disaster that
has always plagued the cities as areas that are in the lower reaches of the watershed and the
capital of the province can be mitigated. A study of the incidence of flooding in the Deli
Watershed in Medan City indicate the efforts of conservation and land use can have an
impact on reducing the maximum discharge and flood volume of each sub-watershed. The
maximum discharge decline reached 26.3% while the largest decreasing of flood volume is
36.2% (Hutapea, 2012). This shows that the conservation and land use management can be
part of the efforts of flood disaster mitigation.
Currently, some of the conservation policy has been implemented by the government to
rehabilitate the flood-prone watershed, including the movement of forest rehabilitation in
flood-prone watershed, water rescue partnerships national movement, and planting activities
in the watershed by students. In addition, the city of Jakarta as the capital city of Indonesia
also has made flood management and conservation activities which are expected to be
completed entirely in 2016 (Public Communication Center, 2013). In the future, the
government should not exploit constantly so that cause damage to watersheds and cause flood.
To that end, flood mitigation and minimization can be reached by doing conservation in
flood-prone watershed ecosystems.

References:
Hidayat, Atep Afia, 2014. Eleven Flood Prone Provinces.
http://www.citarum.org (Accessed on December, 18th 2014)
Hutapea, Suhimar, 2012. Study of Deli Watershed Conservation as Efforts of Flood Control
in Medan City. Thesis. Graduate Program, Faculty of Agriculture, Gadjah Mada
University. Yogyakarta.
Polontalo, Sahroel, 2008. Watershed and Flood.
https://bebasbanjir2025.wordpress.com (Accessed on December, 18th 2014)
Public Communication Center, 2013. Flood Control and River Conservation. Ministry of
Public Works of Indonesia.
Rathna, 2008. Watershed Management Planning in Flood Hazard and Landslide Mitigation
Measures. http://pdasblogger.blogspot.jp (Accessed on December, 18th 2014)

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