Watershed management strategies for flood mitigation: A case study of Jakarta's flooding

Jakarta is a capital city of Indonesia located in the delta of Ciliwung river. This city suffers annual flooding with some serious damage for certain extreme rainfall events, especially occurring at the upper parts of the Ciliwung watershed. In 1992 rainy season, flooding in Jakarta was scattered in 61 sites. In 1996, the flooding increased to 90 sites, and further increased in the rainy season of 2002 to be 159 sites. Jakarta experienced a major flooding on 9–10 February 2015 after having seen two occurrences of major flooding in the two preceding years 2013 and 2014 (Siswanto et al., 2017). Such extreme flooding events might become more frequent in the future due to the impacts of land use and climate change (Kure et al., 2014). To reduce the magnitude and frequency of further flooding, on-site as well as off-site program actions need to be taken comprehensively. This paper is specifically aimed at, firstly understanding the main problems causing flooding in the coastal area of Jakarta, and secondly proposing medium and long-term solutions from the perspective of an integrated watershed management approach. The proposed solution will also include institutional and financial arrangements in a cross-administrative boundary situation.