Informal adaptation to flooding in North Jakarta, Indonesia

In the face of intensifying floods exacerbated by climate change, especially in coastal cities, there is a pressing global demand for effective flood risk governance and adaptation strategies. Such strategies are often informed by indigenous knowledge, aiming for a life in harmony with water and utilising amphibious living concepts to minimise flood impacts, preserving homes and livelihoods. In Indonesia, however, like in many nations in the majority world, these strategies tend to compete with and indeed to be dominated by imported technocratic, top-down, and inflexible planning approaches oriented on principles of the kind of ‘classical planning’ that had its hey-day in the Western world in the early decades following World War II. Like many nations in the majority world, Indonesia has long imported and continues to apply Western technocratic, top-down, and inflexible classical planning approaches. This paper criticises existing practices for failing to yield contextual development strategies that address site-specific urban issues and fall short of meeting the needs of the majority of the population. We explore the extent to which informal settlements, or kampungs of North Jakarta, can incorporate principles of flood adaptation incorporating local, livelihood, and indigenous knowledge. Fishers for instance reclaim land using shell mounds and construct stilt houses, ensuring coastal floods do not enter their homes and that water does not stagnate but can instead quickly drain due to the permeable land surface. Often, however, planning authorities in Jakarta have classified such flood-adapted built environments as illegal slums necessitating removal instead of adopting and encouraging the further development of site-specific settlement strategies generated by the community. This paper then argues that authorities in Jakarta, and potentially in other cities within the majority world, should consider adopting planning approaches that are more adaptive, flexible, and collaborative to pave the way for inclusive development founded on the experience and the aspirations of the community, including those who are marginalized.