Adaptive Development
6. Adaptive Development
Adaptive Development has been set out by Lemos et al. (2013). They address adaptive development as the mean to achieve adaptation to the hazard in a sustainable way. To induce a permanent decrease of the level of vulnerability a sustainable and long term adaptation is needed “to facilitate transitions and transformations —the long-term adaptation directed to more desirable states” (Lemos et al., 2015, p.5).Only with an integrated approach which involves all the actors and by acknowledging the synergy between them structural changes can be accomplished.
As Lemos et al. (2013) point out, adaptive development puts emphasis on the intersection of risk management and policies that aim at the decrease of sensitivity, such as enhancing economic growth, develop the human capital or increase the early warning systems. If the government only addresses the exposure, by building dykes or dredging the rivers, the overall level of vulnerability is not likely to drop. Since the adaptation to flood events within the community has not been altered, thus the same risk remains present. However, focusing on the sensitivity within the urban poor community alone may also not be the ultimate solution for structural changes in the adaptation of floods. Even though it is expected that the knowledge is increased by an intervention within the human capital and the coherence within the villages are enlarged; without precautions to diminish the impact of a flood to for instance the road network, an evacuation will not be able to succeed, which could cause the loss of goods and many innocent lives. The idea of adaptive development can help to take the complexity of the systems into account. To quote Lemos et al. (2013, p.10 ) “Adaptive development provides the social infrastructure that bridges individual actions to reduce personal vulnerability into a framework in which such actions contribute to collective capacity to manage risk.”
For Jakarta Utara it is most important to increase the social coherence, in order to create social acceptance of the new policies. The reciprocal relationship between development and risk, or the reduction of the latter, needs to be clear for all the actors. Both for the government as the community. The current situation, as shown in the previous chapter, is very questionable as the urban poor do not understand their importance in reducing the vulnerability level as a whole. As Susandi et al. (2011) witnessed, the urban poor believe they are not valuable enough to be protected. However, by not including Jakarta Utara’s urban poor in the development plans, the northern part of the city will
remain vulnerable and this increases the risk of flooding in other parts of Jakarta. Thus by increasing the human capital, the knowledge on flood risks and the importance of the communities’ involvement can be explained. Moreover, this also induces the government to acknowledge the importance of these urban poor communities and their need to be protected. By creating mutual respect and cooperation it will be much easier to change the precautions that need to be taken in order to address the exposure. Ultimately the initial changes to the policy and approach of the risk management will increase the adaptive capacity of Jakarta Utara and the urban poor community. Consequently, ones the changes have been included in the society, the community will be able to adapt to the flood instead of showing short term responses. Furthermore, by sustainably adapting to the floods, new initiatives will emerge and the urban poor can start to develop.
7. Conclusion and Recommendations
7.2 Conclusion
‘What are adequate indicators to identify vulnerability of the urban poor in Jakarta Utara, and how can these contribute to adaptive development?’
This research has aimed to firstly identify the indicators of vulnerability of the urban poor in Jakarta Utara and secondly to appoint the contribution or deficits of these indicators to achieve adaptive development. With the help of a literature study we have been able to identify many indicators that indicate the overall level of vulnerability of the urban poor. The level of vulnerability of Jakarta Utara is liable to the three components of vulnerability; exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity (AC) (Smith, 2001; IPCC, 2001).
7.1.1 Exposure There appears to be a high contribution of exposure to the potential impact, this situation can be seen in all of Jakarta’s districts. This is, on the one hand, the result of Jakarta’s location, in the river delta of the Chiliwung River (Marfai et al., 2015). However, the city does not only face risk of flooding
from the rivers but also ones that are generated in the coastal area, the latter is expected to increase over time (Brinkman & Hartman, 2008). Moreover, Jakarta is facing severe surface subsidence, with the fastest subsidence rate signalized in Jakarta Utara (Brinkman & Hartman, 2008). Furthermore, human influences like urbanization and unsustainable use of groundwater increase the exposure of Jakarta. In addition, climate change is expected to increase the sea level rise, which will put more stress on the coastal area, as the relative rise of the sea level will cause it to be significantly more exposed to flood events.
The indicators of exposure can predominantly be seen in the stages before a crisis, as these are mostly rather stable factors. However, the exposure indicators, such as the disposing of garbage in the rivers (Susandi et al., 2011), which often occurs in the informal settlements in Jakarta Utara, increase the already high flood risk. Other indicators that have been identified in the table regard the urbanization and the unsustainable use of resources. The latter are visible in all the stages of the disaster cycle, this indicates that there is a lack of knowledge on the impact of these actions.
7.1.2 Sensitivity The lack of knowledge is also visible in the indicators of sensitivity. Sensitivity is the combination of
attributes that influences a system to be susceptible to exposure and will increase the potential impact (Yoo, Kim & Hadi, 2014). The lack of knowledge, especially seen in the determinant ‘Human Capital’, will lead to higher sensitivity and environmental exposure. Urban poor communities, which make up most of the inhabitants of Jakarta Utara, are often more sensitive because the little financial resources (Bowo & Koeberle, 2010) result in a lack of education. The perception of a flood is affected by the level of education and the knowledge on disaster management. Since the urban poor often experience that they are not valuable enough to be protected, as they do not own many goods (Susandi et al, 2011), this indicates that there is little understanding about how the urban poor affect the overall level of vulnerability. The table in the integrated results shows that the resistance of the urban poor to evacuate, in order to protect the goods that are left, and the actions they undertake during a crisis situation, are increasing the sensitivity.
7.1.3 Adaptive Capacity An adaptive way of responding to the floods and the high risks indicate a communities AC. The potential impact of exposure and sensitivity is decreased by the AC. There are multiple ways in which
a community can respond in an adaptive manner, but most important is the sustainability of the response. Lemos et al., (2013) state that an unequally divided responsibility for enhancing protection a community can respond in an adaptive manner, but most important is the sustainability of the response. Lemos et al., (2013) state that an unequally divided responsibility for enhancing protection
The following paragraph sets out the recommendations that are created as a means to improve flood management in the case of a crisis. Ultimately the recommendations facilitate adaptive development. The indicators of vulnerability have shown that there is a lack of understanding between not only the individuals and the community, but also among the urban poor community and the government or stakeholders. Without a coherent plan of action and cooperation, investments to decrease the exposure or sensitivity will not be effective. New approaches have to acknowledge the negative synergy between exposure and sensitivity (Heltberg, Siegel et al., 2009). Moreover, a policy that denies the impact of, among others, the lack of education, political power, and financial resources on the vulnerability will not be able to induce development (Lemos et al., 2013).
7.2 Recommendations
As can be concluded from this report, the poor community in Jakarta Utara has a very complex socio- economic structure and is maybe even more complex in relation to Jakarta as a whole. This means that the development of the urban poor community towards a better organized and better prepared community is likely to become a slow and gradual process.
7.2.1 Community Platform
To address the set of indicators that make the urban poor so vulnerable we recommend the establishment of a local-based physical platform in Utara in which anyone can participate. The platform is a form for the community of Utara to participate. The platform we envisage will involve multiple actors but most importantly the inhabitants of the squatter settlements themselves. In this paper it is argued that an adequate understanding of the values of the urban poor is an essential part of development that is currently lacking. Building a bridge between the people in Utara and development planners will help to increase understanding of adaptation within development for both of them. In other words, the platform seeks to decrease physical exposure by potentially increasing the adaptive capacity of the urban poor to react more quickly to an incoming disaster.The logistics of the platform (including its precise locations, the amount of sessions and the duration of a session) will be left out of the discussion. We are rather pointing to the issues that need to be tackled and making suggestions how this should be done.
Core points of the platform will include: Incorporating the interests of urban poor in current building projects and monitoring systems
Developing suitable evacuation plans that take into account the dependence of the community on the coast area. Developing a waste-system by mobilizing the community and providing compensation
Improving communication in the pre-stage, crisis and aftermath of a flood by presenting
developments in mobile devices and especially smartphones (Smith, 2009; Keim & Noji, 2011). Strengthening community coherence
Besides the emergence of a physical platform as a way of increasing communication there can be looked at other forms that will improve responses to floods for the urban poor, namely virtual platforms. Social media proposes a means to communicate in the phases of a natural hazard; mitigation and preparedness (before), response (during) and recovery (after) (Kaewkitipong, Chen,
&Racthamp, 2012). Consequently, research shows that in the immediate aftermath of a natural hazard the use of social networking sites through cyber-physical devices increased predictably and has even surpassed the use of more conventional communication methods (Velev & Zlateva, 2012).The use of social media in those phases, pointed out by Kaewkitipong& Chen et al. (2012), can be linked to Giddens structuration theory (Kaewkitipong, Chen, & Racthamp, 2012).
7.2.2 Early Warning Systems
In order to create an early warning system that works properly and has the desired effect it is crucial to choose one platform that one can rely on and is familiar with (Taubenbock et al, 2012). Twitter is a popular social media platform and is commonly used in daily life. Jakarta even has one of the highest number of Twitter users in the world (Sysomos, 2010). Hossman et al. (2011) argue that extending Twitter with a special ‘disaster mode’, Twimlight, which one can easily activate during extreme
events, will enable so called opportunistic communication. By using a platform that the inhabitants of Jakarta Utara are already familiar with will increase the genesis of Giddens communication dimension. Moreover Twitter is by default open and public, via a search tag that a user can add to their tweets, called hashtags (a keyword marked with a #), it is easy to keep track of the number of tagged events (Hossmann, Legendre, Carta, Gunningberg, & Rohner, 2011).
Another platform that is currently being used to monitor the events and proceedings of a flood is PetaJakarta.org. PetaJakarta.org is an online platform that uses twitter information to create a real time flood map (Holderness & Turpin, 2015). The platform has enabled inhabitants of flood prone areas to make decisions on safety and navigation, as they are aware of the current damages and can help others to response. Such a platform is extremely effective in achieving not only a higher adaptive capacity, but also adaptive development. Because the inhabitants are included in the process and will increase the social cohesion as well as the corporate responsibility (Holderness & Turpin, 2015). However, a platform as PetaJakarta.org which is very useful to get a better understanding of the events and Twimlight as a powerful communication method during the crisis, only works optimally and can than induce adaptive development, if the data is partially given by the government. But also used by the government to adapt to the events (Schellens, 2015). Without the cooperation of all the individual links in this system, an early warning system will not have the intended results and will only be useful for short term solutions.
Underlining Holderness & Turpin (2015) a firm recommendation to create a situation in which the community can communicate in a sustainable way and increase the social coherence to react on a flood event, the government should provide data on the number of inhabitants, the economic resources and other required data. Consequently the addition of this data can help predict the scope of
a crisis, but most of all a well-funded preparation. Furthermore it remains amongst the priorities of Jakarta to develop large-scale projects that reduce the city’s exposure to floods. One of the most discussed project, comes from a Dutch consultancy and engineering firm Witteveen & Bos and is called ‘Masterplan Jakarta’. This is a part of a bigger project called National Capital Integrated Coastal Development that aims to protect permanently Jakarta against flooding (NCICD, 2014). The Great Garuda, as it is called, is an offshore construction that acts like a seawall that is designed to protect Jakarta from the rising sea level by regulation the water level in a basin between the coastline and the artificial islands. It is also supposed to create more space to accommodate the flow of new inhabitants due to the ongoing urbanisation (Witteveen+Bos, 2014). Most other engineering projects are aiming to deviate the course of the rivers into channels that are able to cope with high discharge peaks. It should be understood, as this research demands, that community interests should be taken into consideration.