Essay On Land Subsidence

915 Words4 Pages

1. Introduction
A number of areas in various ecosystems in Indonesia are now facing land subsidence. Jakarta, Semarang, Indragiri Hilir, and Siak are the area where the rate of land subsidence is excessive. Jakarta and Semarang, located in urbanized and coastal area, experience land subsidence due to groundwater extraction and natural consolidation of sediment material. Population growth and intensive urban development in these areas accelerate groundwater extraction. As mentioned by Calderhead, Therrien, Rivera, Martel, & Garfias (2011), population and industrial growth generated intensive exploration of aquifers due to the increasing of groundwater demand. The extensive exploration of groundwater is growing time to time since Jakarta and Semarang are located in high demand …show more content…

Land subsidence in Jakarta, Semarang, and Indragiri Hilir was triggered by natural and anthropogenic process. Compare to natural-induced subsidence, anthropogenic subsidence is faster (Meckel, 2008). Human activities as well as inappropriate landuse plan and disaster management design might accelerate land subsidence and widen the risks. Unwise policies and programs regulated by government moreover will increase land subsidence rate. Nowadays, there are, at least, three problems in land subsidence governance in Indonesia that are land subsidence is not the strategic disaster issue, lack of government attention in order to create the tools on dealing with the problems, and lack of community involvement in the process of managing land subsidence impacted areas. First, despite some areas in Indonesia are sinking gradually, even fast, governments and local people are unaware to the issue. Land subsidence in almost all affected areas in Indonesia is being seen as the common problems. Some local governments realize land subsidence as normal natural consolidation that will discontinue