Cascading Semarang

For Water as Leverage Semarang, the project proposals from "Cascading Semarang" are the following: Semarang is facing multiple interconnected water-related challenges. Urbanization as well as climate change increasingly exposes the city to flooding from both the sea- and mountain side. Additionally, long-term groundwater extraction creates land subsidence and exhausts the available freshwater resources. Currently, a wide array of measures has been employed to respond to the direct dangers at hand: polders, sea dykes and normalization canals for optimal discharge of water. Though these bigger scale measures are being successful, they don’t address the causes of increased flooding, water scarcity and land subsidence, issues which will continue to grow if not addressed. To address these issues, we need to tap into the abundance of water and store the water that is available. We also need to increase flood resiliency on a more local and decentralized manner, strengthening the finer network. Following the watershed from upstream to downstream opportunities have been defined and explored, which shift the view of water as a threat towards beneficial. By adding the concept of 'cascading' to the current water management system, a series of elements of storage and utilization are created with a complementary and synergetic approach. Thus, creating a paradigm shift from "All the water out" towards "Not a drop of water gets lost".


The three project proposals are:

  • Cascading Semarang Feeding the Industry

This programme looks at providing secure and readily accessible alternative water sources for industrial water supply. Currently, most of the industry’s water consumption is obtained from the confined aquifer. This is one of the main causes of land subsidence in Semarang. This land subsidence enhances the flood risk from pluvial and marine flooding. The rate of land subsidence is already significantly higher than sea level rise, this could create more certain, extreme and widespread damages to public- and private-infrastructures than "uncertain" extreme events. Main goal of this programme is to shift the water consumption paradigm in Semarang, which will benefit both the city and its citizens and private industries.

  • Spongy Mountain

'Spongy Mountain Terraces' are looking to create uphill interventions which aim at reducing the flood risk of downstream areas as well as reducing the landslide risk in endangered areas. They stabilize the water supply throughout the year and increase the resilience of recent and new developments. On an urban scale they will increase sponginess of natural areas and release new land for further development. They will enhance natural spongy capacity of uphill zones and stimulate new urban typologies, which could facilitate new ways of living with water.

  • Rechanneling the City

'Rechannelling the City' aims at the improvement of inner-city urban water management, creating additional capacity for the storage and regulation of waterflow. This system promotes the local handling of stormwater instead of discharging water as fast as possible. The upgrade of the water infrastructure will improve the sanitary conditions and enhance existing public spaces as well as creating new ones, which will stimulate an urban repair process and provide ground for new commercial and residential development in the city centre.

Other local partners included: Deltares, FABRICations, IDN Liveable Cities, UNDIP, Universitas Islam Sulyan Agung, Witteveen+Bos Indonesia.

Project summary

Project number:
NL-KVK-27378529-WAL18CA21
Total budget:
€ 200,000
Countries:
Indonesia
Project status:
Finalised
Budget spent:
100.00 %
100.00 % spent
Tied status:
Untied
Startdate:
Enddate:
Contact:
iati@rvo.nl
Project partners:
MLA+ B.V., Netherlands Enterprise Agency
Sectors:
Disaster Risk Reduction, Water sector policy and administrative management, Water supply and sanitation - large systems