Spatial Violations Rampant at High-Risk Watersheds
An analysis on built-up land compared with the spatial planning map has found rampant spatial violations in watershed areas (DAS) that pose a high risk to their inhabitants.
A number of TNI soldiers and residents cleaned up trash that had settled in the Citarum Lama stream in Bojongsoang, Bandung Regency, West Java, Wednesday (21/2/2018).
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Widespread land conversion into built-up area and violation of spatial planning regulations have been rife in the Citarum and Barito watersheds (DAS). According to the disaster risk index, these two DAS carry the highest risk of flooding and landslides among all other watersheds in Indonesia. Control and enforcement of spatial regulations do not appear to be working.
Using 2000 and 2020 data from the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) for the Citarum and Barito DAS, the Kompas Data Journalism Team has found massive conversion into built-up land, or land where various types of physical structures, from housing settlements, industrial plants and to trade centers, stand.
In the Citarum DAS, 28,031 hectares of newly built-up land have been recorded in the last 20 years. Only 84,413 ha of built-up land were recorded in the Citarum DAS in 2000, as the GHSL 2022 data shows, before the figure expanded to 112,445 ha. Over the past 20 years, there has been a 33 percent increase in built-up land in the Citarum DAS.
During the same period, the Barito DAS in South Kalimantan saw an additional 19,692 ha of built-up land. The figure is a 73 percent rise from 2000, when 27,063 ha of built-up area was recorded.
The Citarum and Barito watersheds are categorized as the highest hydrometeorological hazards in Indonesia, with respective scores of 0.74 and 0.62 on the Disaster Risk Index (DRI). The DRI takes into account the frequency of natural disasters, the number of victims and affected people, and the number of damaged buildings over the 2013-2022 period.
Rules violations
Extensive and massive growth of built-up land in the two watersheds has exposed the violations against watershed management as stipulated in the Regional Spatial Planning (RTRW). Kompas' analysis reveals that 25,132 ha, or 22.3 percent, of built-up land in the Citarum DAS are in breach of the initially designated land use. In the Barito DAS, spatial planning violations involve 9,916 ha, or 21.9 percent, of the total built-up area.
These findings were obtained from studying the latest RTRW for regencies and municipalities in the Citarum and Barito DAS areas and comparing them against the 2020 GHSL data.
In the Citarum DAS, the majority of land function mismatches have occurred on agricultural land intended for food and horticultural crops. A stretch of 16,170 ha that was formerly designated for food and horticultural crops has been turned into built-up land. Violations have also been found on land formerly allotted for plantations (3,248 ha), protected forests and nature reserves (2,428 ha), and water body boundaries (2,314 ha). Water bodies include rivers, reservoirs, and lakes.
In the Barito DAS, impervious areas have been converted into food agriculture and horticulture land (3,327 ha), water body boundaries (2,919 ha), plantations (1,929 ha), and productive or community forests (1,017 ha).
In addition, analyzing GHSL data with Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data from the Geospatial Information Agency has found built-up land on steep slopes, or slopes with an incline of more than 24 degrees (45 percent). In the Citarum DAS, this is commonly found in the regencies of West Bandung and Bandung, with built-up land of respectively 158 ha and 135 ha.
The Citarum DAS has actually received intervention from the central government through the Citarum Harum Program under the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister. The program contains 11 recommended actions to restore the Citarum River, including inventorying spatial planning discrepancies as regards land use in the Citarum DAS.
KOMPAS/ALBERTUS KRISNA
Resident of Tanjungmekar Village, West Karawang District, Karawang Regency, West Java Ahmad Muslim when interviewed by Kompas on Saturday (4/2/2023). The location of his house on the banks of the Citarum River is often hit by floods.
Dilemma
M. Saleh Nugrahadi, the coordinating investment minister’s deputy for watershed management and natural resource conservation, conceded that the spatial planning program was not yet optimal, especially on the issue of build-up land in forest areas.
The government faced a dilemma regarding agricultural activities on steep slopes, with Saleh saying it was difficult for the government to prevent people from cultivating their own land. "Indeed, there are regulations that prohibit activities on designated slopes, but in practice, it is difficult [to prevent]," he said.
This spatial concept shifts economic dependence from mining to tourism.
M. Nur Sjamsi, head of spatial planning and agrarian affairs at the South Kalimantan Public Works and Housing Office, said land use control needed to be optimized, especially along riverbanks in urban settlements and mining areas.
He added that the Meratus Mountains was being proposed to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for recognition as a global geopark as part of the efforts to protect the forest area. "This spatial concept shifts economic dependence from mining to tourism," he said.
Biophysics
Regional spatial planning, along with detailed recommended actions, has been drawn up to carry out watershed management and mandatory rehabilitation.
However, according to Budi Situmorang, a regional development expert staffer at the Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning (ATR) Ministry/National Land Agency (BPN), a spatial plan can instead increase the risk of disaster if it had failed to take into account the biophysical conditions of the regulated region. For example, sloped land with an incline of more than 45 percent must be regulated as a protected space according to Environment and Forestry Ministerial Regulation No. 9/2021 on social forestry management.
He pointed to several local administrations that had failed to follow the technical guidelines of the existing spatial plan. “This is because there is a conflict [of interest] between economic and conservation activities. Local administrations are not following the guidelines and overlooking the [environmental] impacts," he said.
On the other hand, sanctions for land use violations have not been enforced optimally. The ATR/BPN Ministry has reportedly found 4,285 spatial planning violations in 151 regencies and municipalities since 2015. Of that number, only four cases are being processed under criminal charges and 928 cases (22 percent) are liable to administrative sanctions.
"We are looking for sanctions on violations that have a big impact, so that other people become deterrents," he said.
Saparis Soedarjanto, director of watershed management planning and supervision at the Environment and Forestry Ministry, said the spatial planning regulations did not appear to always be aligned with the scope of DAS, due to the fact that rivers can cross administrative boundaries. He warned that uncontrolled land use would potentially increase disaster proneness.
