Adapting City for Frequent Floods: A Case Study of Jakarta, Indonesia

Abstract

Due to global warming and climate change, floods have occurred quite often in many places in the world, including Jakarta. As the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta has suffered from floods since a long time ago, even before the Dutch colonized this country. The recent floods in this capital are likely caused by more complex factors compared to the previous ones. To respond to such complexity factors which have created floods in this capital, an urban design strategy is proposed. The design strategy proposes that parts of the city, particularly those which are affected by frequent flooding are to be elevated. Most of the city centre is heavily affected when floods occur, and these areas are where the multi-storey and high rise buildings are built. By elevating the main roads in these areas and connecting these roads to the upper floors of the buildings, people can gain access easily to almost all of the buildings from the elevated roads. The ground surface areas of the city can then be redesigned in such a way as to increase their ability to absorb more rain water and overflowing river water, reducing the flood effects in the city.