7 Resilience of Coastal Cities in Facing Climate Change: Reclamation …
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greenhouse gas emissions. In contrast, climate change gives a different perspective
of how the impacts are more vulnerable to people, for instance, sea level rises,
high tides, changing patterns in wet and dry seasons that threaten farmers harvest,
changing salinity of sea that causes less catch for fishermen. World’s populations
have suffered these impacts and categorized as devastating disasters.
3
As a part of adaptation, coastal cities have been urged to have a better social
resilience in coping with climate change. As a concept, adaptation should be mainstreamed into a long-term urban planning and channeled from national to individual
level. In other words, the mainstreamed adaptation of climate change should be
included into urban development, small islands, and coastal zones in Indonesia.
However, coastal cities still face a great challenge, for example, (1) Ecological problems such as biodiversity destruction, habitat loss on ocean, contamination and river
alterations, (2) Economic problems such as the rising of health care, loss of workdays, the rising of social services for new infrastructures and rehabilitations, (3)
Social problems such as unemployment, the loss of income, unexpected job loss,
the decreasing productivity, the loss of social protection, the loss of infrastructure
that supports daily life, and (4) Sea and coastal reclamation that cause social and
ecological threats.
The framework of Indonesia coastal planning had been proposed in Constitution
or UU No.24 in 1992, that regulates coastal planning including special zones which
coordinate the planning and its outcomes from national, provinces to districts level
of coastal zones. However, most cities located in coastal zones do not integrate landuse planning with coastal planning. Therefore, the coastal planning often does not
meet its objectives. Many coastal zones were abandoned and designed as a backyard
for waste collection. Meanwhile, another model of coastal planning, for example,
reclamation, is in contradiction with previous coastal planning which considered
coastal areas less important. Based on this problem, the research question of this paper
is that how does the government lead the effort to make coastal cities a better social
resilience in coping with climate change, particularly when regulation implemented
is incompatible with RAN-API, that is reclamation of sea and coastal areas?
During the period of government prior to the era of President Joko Widodo, private
investors had benefited from marine and coastal resources, but they did not carry out
coastal development in an inclusive and sustainable manner. So that the coastal area
is not developed in an inclusive and sustainable manner, massive environmental
damage has occurred both in Java and outside Java. And the coastal communities
become poor and not prosperous. Indonesia experienced a setback in the development sector, this happened during the monetary and economic crisis in 1998. The
momentum of the economic and monetary crisis in 1998 was used as a warning
to change Indonesia’s development vision. Thus, the government of President Joko
Widodo began to massively reconstruct Indonesia’s coastal areas by implementing
sustainable inclusive development through the construction of sea tolls, road and
port infrastructure and building environmentally friendly industries. Especially in
3 See in https://belajarbencana.wordpress.com/2008/06/03/perubahan-iklim-dalam-konteks-kebenc
anaan-di-indonesia (climate-change-in-context-disaster-in-indonesia).
127
greenhouse gas emissions. In contrast, climate change gives a different perspective
of how the impacts are more vulnerable to people, for instance, sea level rises,
high tides, changing patterns in wet and dry seasons that threaten farmers harvest,
changing salinity of sea that causes less catch for fishermen. World’s populations
have suffered these impacts and categorized as devastating disasters.
3
As a part of adaptation, coastal cities have been urged to have a better social
resilience in coping with climate change. As a concept, adaptation should be mainstreamed into a long-term urban planning and channeled from national to individual
level. In other words, the mainstreamed adaptation of climate change should be
included into urban development, small islands, and coastal zones in Indonesia.
However, coastal cities still face a great challenge, for example, (1) Ecological problems such as biodiversity destruction, habitat loss on ocean, contamination and river
alterations, (2) Economic problems such as the rising of health care, loss of workdays, the rising of social services for new infrastructures and rehabilitations, (3)
Social problems such as unemployment, the loss of income, unexpected job loss,
the decreasing productivity, the loss of social protection, the loss of infrastructure
that supports daily life, and (4) Sea and coastal reclamation that cause social and
ecological threats.
The framework of Indonesia coastal planning had been proposed in Constitution
or UU No.24 in 1992, that regulates coastal planning including special zones which
coordinate the planning and its outcomes from national, provinces to districts level
of coastal zones. However, most cities located in coastal zones do not integrate landuse planning with coastal planning. Therefore, the coastal planning often does not
meet its objectives. Many coastal zones were abandoned and designed as a backyard
for waste collection. Meanwhile, another model of coastal planning, for example,
reclamation, is in contradiction with previous coastal planning which considered
coastal areas less important. Based on this problem, the research question of this paper
is that how does the government lead the effort to make coastal cities a better social
resilience in coping with climate change, particularly when regulation implemented
is incompatible with RAN-API, that is reclamation of sea and coastal areas?
During the period of government prior to the era of President Joko Widodo, private
investors had benefited from marine and coastal resources, but they did not carry out
coastal development in an inclusive and sustainable manner. So that the coastal area
is not developed in an inclusive and sustainable manner, massive environmental
damage has occurred both in Java and outside Java. And the coastal communities
become poor and not prosperous. Indonesia experienced a setback in the development sector, this happened during the monetary and economic crisis in 1998. The
momentum of the economic and monetary crisis in 1998 was used as a warning
to change Indonesia’s development vision. Thus, the government of President Joko
Widodo began to massively reconstruct Indonesia’s coastal areas by implementing
sustainable inclusive development through the construction of sea tolls, road and
port infrastructure and building environmentally friendly industries. Especially in
3 See in https://belajarbencana.wordpress.com/2008/06/03/perubahan-iklim-dalam-konteks-kebenc
anaan-di-indonesia (climate-change-in-context-disaster-in-indonesia).