Saving Jakarta from Sinking

Jakarta is Undertaking a Three-decade-long Plan to Save Its Coastline, as It's Sinking as Much as a Few Centimeters Per Year

It's not just rising tides that are to blame for Jakarta's plunge. It's the fact that the city has pumped its water out of deep underground wells for years—leaving empty chasms that are now sinking, according to aCityLabstory from 2012. The stakes in the race against the rising tides are high: Millions of people are at risk right now, and the horrible floods of 2007 left 500,000 people homeless and causedhundreds of thousandsto suffer food- and water-related illnesses.

The ambitious plan to save itis extreme. It calls for thirty years of work, at a price of $40 billion (at least), and would create 17 new islands as well as a 5-mile-long wall, creating a reservoir to catch floodwaters between this new archipelago and the existing city. The government calls it "The Great Garuda," a reference to the sweeping wing shape of the ring of artificial islands, which are akin to the mythical avian Garuda—which also happens to be the country's national symbol, as well as the name of its national airline.

Behind this enormous infrastructural effort is an agreement between Indonesia and perhaps the most flood-endangered nation: The Netherlands. Holland, which has its ownexpansive plansto mitigate rising sea levels, is cooperating with the Indonesian government to design and carry out the 30-year masterplan as part of a joint nation-to-nation project. The shape of the islands, for example, is being planned by the Dutch firmKuiperCompagnons, which consults to cities around the world also dealing with flood mitigation. The masterplan is being developed by Dutch companyWitteveen+Bos.

If it sounds odd that a group of Dutch companies are spearheading an effort to rebuilt the coastline of an Indonesian city, it won't for long. The Netherlands have pioneered flood planning for centuries, but only over the past decade have they begun exporting their expertise—thanks to the rising tides that are suddenly threatening dozens of cities outside of their tiny low-lying country.

The plan to save Jakarta actually borrows from the9-year project to save Holland's own coastline, called Room for the River. The $3 billion project will wrap up next year, and is based on a very simple, but very paradoxical, idea. To survive a flood, you have to allow water into areas where you might not want it. In other words. you have to provide places for all that water to go—both during the flood and as the water recedes—rather than relying on a single, massive wall or similar idea.

Source: Gizmodo

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