Monday, December 20, 2010

What to expect from urban development

Nirwono Joga in the Jakarta Post: A sustainable city is a city that in its development is able to meet the needs of its citizens, can compete in the global economic environment by maintaining the vitality of social harmony, cultural, political, and defense and security, without ignoring or diminishing the ability of future generations to fulfill their needs...

The challenge for urban development is to minimize exploitation of natural resources that could exacerbate climate change impacts and integrate the sustainable development approach. Some cities in Indonesia are currently involved in developing climate-mitigation and adaptation strategies with the assistance of the national network, such as Semarang, Bandarlampung and Surabaya, which have a strong focus on community issues.

The approach provides a new model on climate change mitigation and adaptation in Indonesian cities based on the concept of “mass collaboration” (Tapscott and Williams, 2006). Semarang municipality’s climate-mitigation strategy has four focus areas, namely inundation and sea rise-induced flooding, coastal erosion, drought and landslide. The key elements in these projects are political will and forward-looking leadership, involvement of city stakeholders and data availability.

Bandarlampung municipality’s climate-mitigation strategy has three focus areas, which are solid waste management, clean water management and water catchment/reservoir area rehabilitation. The Surabaya municipality decided to implement a community-based waste management program, also known as the Green and Clean Initiative, due to a massive waste issue in the city….

From the Tropenmuseum Collection on Wikimedia Commons, an aqueduct in Semarang, year unknown

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