All About The Causes Of Floods In Jabodetabek According To Researchers

JAKARTA - Research Center for Limnology Research, LIPI M Fakhrudin, said that the rapid land changes have decreased the absorption capacity of the watershed system (DAS) in Jabodetabek. So that according to him, it is not able to absorb the abundance of rainwater that falls during extreme weather and ultimately contributes to the large amount of waterlogging or flooding in the area.

"This causes the proportion of rainwater that is converted directly to surface runoff or direct run-off to continue to increase," said Fakhrudin in Jakarta, Tuesday, January 7.

When the absorption and carrying capacity of the environment decreases, and extreme rainfall occurs, flooding becomes an inevitable disaster.

The rain that falls in the Jakarta and surrounding areas is extreme rain. The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency recorded that extreme rainfall of 377 millimeters (mm) occurred at Halim Perdanakusuma, 335 mm / day in Taman Mini, and 259 mm / day in Jatiasih. Rainfall is in the extreme category if it is more than 150 mm / day.

Fakhrudin said that extreme and evenly distributed rainfall is the main cause of flooding in Jakarta and its surroundings. In this weather condition, downstream parts such as Jakarta experience flooding, which is made worse by a few hours later water comes from the upstream, increasing flooding.

Environmental power has decreased and absorption capacity is reduced due to disruption or decreased absorption functions due to rapid land changes such as land use that has changed its function in the upstream area, including Bogor, which has increased tremendously in recent years, so it must be controlled so as not to worsen environmental damage in the future. .

These changes in land are marked by changes in forest, garden and agricultural areas into settlements or forests turning into new agricultural land.

If a forest is disturbed just a little, it will cause the carrying capacity of the environment to immediately decrease due to reduced absorption of the environment, even water from extreme rain cannot be absorbed by the soil and the environment, resulting in flooding.

For this reason, it is necessary to improve and improve the quality of the environment both upstream and downstream. The upstream area must be able to control the water so that it soaks up a lot in the ground.

Therefore, the existence and preservation of forests must be maintained. Likewise, agriculture must be environmentally friendly and residents in residential areas do not litter. The community also does not throw water on the ground but into the reservoir.

Control Downstream

Meanwhile in the downstream area, various efforts can be made, including ensuring that the micro drainage system is well integrated with the macro drainage, then the water pumping system is also functioning properly.

Land that can be used as a source of infiltration should also be maintained, as well as the ecosystem there must also be well preserved and maintained.

Researcher at the Center for Policy Research and Management of Science and Technology and Innovation of LIPI Galuh Syahbana Indrapahasta said that the flood disaster in Jabodetabek showed that three interrelated aspects were not managed, namely technical, ecological, and social.

Galuh said that the decline in the quality of the Jabodetabek ecology in general can be seen from the conversion of green lands into built-up spaces.

According to Galuh, infrastructure problems are certainly an important part of efforts to mitigate floods in Jakarta. However, two other aspects also need to be intervened so as to produce a spatial system that has better resilience to flooding.

Strengthening the social aspect must also be carried out through increasing community resilience and efforts to change community behavior so as to produce more environmentally friendly behavior in order to maintain environmental sustainability so that the carrying capacity of the environment does not decrease.

A report by the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) on Sunday January 5 showed that extreme weather could potentially occur in several parts of Indonesia in the next week.

During the period 31 January 2019-1 January 2020, extreme rainfall category has been dominant in the DKI Jakarta area which has never happened before since the 1990s, while the distribution of rainfall in buffer areas such as the Bogor and Depok areas was dominated by the heavy rain category.