Disasters, especially those affected by climate change, have been the primary concern of cities around the world. As an economic growth pole of a country (Duranton, 2009), a city cannot escape from disaster risks (De Sherbinin et al. 2007). Most of the disasters that happen in global cities are caused by climate change (IFRC, 2015). A rapid and uncertain climate-related catastrophe disables urban infrastructures and inhibits societies livelihood. Hence, the United Nations have determined a resilient city as a part of Sustainable Development Goals, particularly related to the 11th (sustainable cities and settlements) and 13th (climate actions) targets.
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The Indonesian National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) mentioned that 120 Indonesian districts or cities have a high risk of being affected by (climate-related) disasters in 2013. Addressing this issue, both government and non-governmental organization have carried out some programs that aim to realize a resilient city. However, it is hard to say that the implementation of those programs is running smoothly. Three challenges and measures that need to be done will be discussed in this article as follow:
1. Mainstreaming Climate Change and the Formulation of Adaptive Planning Scenarion in Cities Spatial Planning (RTRW Kota)
The Ministry of Agrarian and Spatial Planning (ATR) have issued the Ministry Regulation Number 1 of 2018. This new regulation guides the formulation of the spatial planning document in provincial, district, and city level. The annex of this regulation explicitly obliges to consider climatological data, climate change affected regions, adaptive capacity and disaster risk reduction analysis as part of the substance of cities spatial plan (RTRW Kota). As a consequence, it is necessary to evaluate and adjust the existing RTRW Kota which previously refers to the old regulation that neglected the climate change aspects.
Besides providing climatological data, all involved stakeholders (e.g. planners, local governments, and citizen, etc.) need to enhance their knowledge in utilizing the data to develop adaptive planning scenarios. For instance, by investigating the flood disaster risk level of each region and the financial capability of a city, planners should develop collaboratively several alternatives of drainage network plans and the distribution of flood control infrastructure (e.g. infiltration wells, bio pore holes). The networks's design should be flexible and robust to face climate disaster shocks. The plan will be more comprehensive if it is integrated with disaster contingency plans made by the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD).
2. Integrating the Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)
The difference between CCA and DRR are being reviewed in an academic context. Birkmann and Teichman (2010) underlined that the time aspect is one of the critical differences. They explained that DRR does not always have long-term actions while CCA continually has. Although both consider historical disasters data, DRR does not conduct a long-term future disaster impac simulation (Tearfund, 2008). DRR measures tend only to become a coping mechanism for addressing problems when ongoing or after disasters happen. Moreover, Birkmann and Teichman (2010) highlighted that a crucial distinction lies in the responsible institutions. As an illustration in Indonesia, InaRISK (a disaster information system formed by BNPB) has not been fully integrated with SIDIK (a Climate Vulnerability Data Information System made by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry).
However, CCA and DRR are supposed to be an integrated effort, intend to improve humankind capacity to reduce risk triggered by (general) disaster of climate change. Disasters risk analysis need to study historical climatodological data (past 30 years) and conduct a simulation to predict future climate change impact for upcoming for 30 or 60 years. By doing this, DRR can reveal an overview of long-term disaster risk lelve in a city so that all stakeholders can prepare preventive measures to deal with it. Integration of SIDIK and InaRisk can be an initial step to optimize this action.
3. Agreed Indicators as well as Monitoring and Evaluation Tools for Resilient City Program.
Resilience is a complicated notion that has multi-interpretation to comprehend its definition (Bene et al., 2014). In an academic discussion, several indicators are being used to operationalize the essence of resilience (Ellis, 2014). In practice, all involved stakeholders have their own way to define (climate) vulnerability issues. The different perspective in observing those issues encourage them to determine distinct indicators to typify the character of their programs including the contained strategies (Tyler et al., 2016). Integration of Resilient City Programs initiated by various organizatons is still a significant challenge that needs to be faced in developing countries, including Indonesia (Setiadi and Wulandari, 2017). The resilient city indicators comprehend and agreed by all stakeholders are urgently needed as a basis to formulate monitoring and evaluation tool. The tool will be utilized to examine and improve the quality of the resilient city program implementation over time. Furthermore, the resilient city indicators need to be adjusted to the main tasks and functions possessed by each involved government sectors. Also, the division of responsibilities and contributions of each stakeholder needs to be clearly defined to prevent overlapping activities in the program.
Overall, it can be concluded that the challenges to realize a resilient city lies in the aspects of spatial planning. Integration of CCA and DRR concepts, as well as agreed indicators for investigating program performance. All of these challenges should be the main concern for all stakeholders. The realization of resilient city is no longer an option, but it is an obligation which has to be developed for protecting (urban) societies' safety.
Written by:
Soly Iman Santoso, M.Sc
an urban development planner who has ten years of experience providing consultancy and research services in the area of spatial planning, sustainable urban development, climate change adaptation, and mitigation as well as urban climate resilience. Find out more about him through his LinkedIN: www.linkedin.com/in/solysantoso
References
Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana (BNPB) Indonesia. 2016. IRBI 2013 in the Presentation of Penurunan Indeks Resiko Bencana di Indonesia (Decreasing the Disaster Risk Index in Indonesia.
Bene, C., Newsham, A., Davies, M., Ulrichs, M. and Godfret-Wood, R., 2014. Resilience, poverty and development. Journal of International Development, 26(5), pp/598-623. DOI: 10.1002/jid.2992
Birkmann, J. and von Teichman, K., 2010. Integrating disaster risk reduction and climate chage adaptation: key challenges-scales, knowledge, and norms. Sustainability Science, 5(2), pp.171-184. DOI: 10.1007/s11625-010-0108-y
De Sherbinin, A., Schiller, A. and Pulsipher, A., 2007. The vulnerability of global cities to climate hazards. Environment and Urbanization, 19(1), pp. 39-64. DOI: 10/1177/0956247807076725
Duranton, Gilles. 2009. Are Cities Engines of Growth and Prosperity for Developing Countries?. Washington: The World Bank.
Ellis, J., 2014. Climate Resilience Indicator Literature Review. Columbia: Trust's Communities Adapting to Climate Change Initiative and the Columbia Basin Rural Development Institute
IFRC (Internation Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies). 2015. World Disaster Report - Focus on Local Actors. the Key to Humanitarian Effectiveness.
Setiadi, R. and Wulandari, F. 2017. Memadukan Strategi, Mewujudkan Ketahanan: Sebuah Pembelajaran dari Pengembangan Strategi Ketahanan Kota di Semarang. (Integrating Strategy, Realizing Resilience: A Lesson Learned from Resilient City Strategies Formulation in Semarang City). Jurnal Pengembangan Kota, 4(2), pp.95-105. DOI: 10.14710
Tearfund. 2008. Linking Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction. London: Tearfund.
The Ministry of Agrarian and Spatial Planning (ATR) Regulation Number 1 of 2018 about the Formulation Guidelines of Provincial, District and City Spatial Plan.
Tyler, S., Nugraham E., Nguyen, H.K., Van Nguyen, N., Sari, A.D., Thinpanga, P., Tran, T.T. and Verma, S.S., 2016. Indicators of urban climate resilience: A contextual approach. Environmental Science & Policy, 66, pp.420-426. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2016.08.004
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