BMKG: Land Reduction Is The Trigger For Java Island To Be Vulnerable To Floods

Residents pushed motorbikes that broke down due to flooding in Semarang City, Central Java, Wednesday (13/3/2024/ANTARA HO BPBD Semarang

JAKARTA - Head of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) Dwikorita Karnawati revealed that apart from weather anomaly conditions, land subsidence has also triggered most areas on the island of Java to be prone to floods and landslides.

"The phenomenon of land subsidence is known to refer to the results of a geological investigation followed by the BMKG team," he said in a video conference on the seeds of tropical cyclone BMKG reported by ANTARA, Thursday, March 14.

According to him, the cities of Semarang, Pekalongan and Demak are one of the most obvious examples of areas on the island of Java experiencing land subsidence.

From the results of the study, it is known that land subsidence targets the coastal areas of Semarang City, Pekalongan and Demak around 10 centimeters per year. This phenomenon has been going on since the last 10 years.

Dwikorita said that due to the ongoing decline, the land surface in the coastal area of Central Java is currently lower than sea level.

Conditions are exacerbating after meteorological analysis found that for some time in the future the Indonesian atmosphere will still be hit by the activities of Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO) as well as the phenomenon of the Kelvin wave, Rossby Equatorial, and three Tropical Cyclone Seeds at once.

"That's why when it rains, the water spreads quickly, and the receding takes a long time and also doesn't cause a little landslide," he said.

The Head of BMKG assessed that the results of the scientific analysis were the basis for reference for all parties, both the government, legislature and the community to think about solutions to how flood disaster vulnerability could be minimized and the impact did not spread. BMKG is committed to being ready to do whatever is necessary; helping both in terms of disaster mitigation and emergency management efforts for the impact of disasters with other institutions/agencies for the benefit of the nation.