7th Joint Call: Jakarta SOS
Background
Jakarta faces severe land subsidence (up to 25 cm per year in some areas) driven by excessive groundwater extraction, rapid urbanization, and climate-induced sea-level rise. Combined with extreme rainfall, this threatens millions of residents with recurrent flooding, infrastructure damage, and long-term loss of habitable land.
Conventional technical measures such as sea walls have proven insufficient or socially inequitable, often displacing vulnerable communities. Sustainable solutions must integrate engineering with governance, local participation, and socio-economic resilience.
The project
Jakarta SOS pursues the following objectives:
- Analyze hydrogeological and geotechnical dynamics of land subsidence in Jakarta.
- Assess governance structures to identify barriers and opportunities for integrated water management.
- Co-develop adaptation strategies with local stakeholders, focusing on equity, feasibility, and resilience.
- Design policy recommendations combining engineering, nature-based, and social solutions.
- Build a transferable framework applicable to other Southeast Asian delta megacities.
The science
The consortium combines hydrology, engineering, and social sciences:
- Geoscientific analysis of groundwater depletion, soil mechanics, and coastal processes.
- Scenario modeling of subsidence and flooding under different climate and policy conditions.
- Participatory methods with Jakarta communities to integrate local knowledge and needs.
- Policy and governance research to connect technical findings with actionable recommendations.
Expected outcomes include new decision-support tools, policy briefs, and stakeholder-tested adaptation pathways for Jakarta.
The team
The Jakarta SOS partners are:
- Prof. Murat Arsel (Coordinator), Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Dr. Suraya Afiff, Universitas Indonesia, Indonesia
- Prof. Fikret Adaman, Bogaziçi University, Turkey
Contact:
Prof. Murat Arsel