Sorry for the
delayed post, but I hope everyone has had a good Christmas! Being the time of year that it is, I was reminded of the destructive tsunami that took place back on Boxing
Day in 2004. I thought I’d therefore have a look at the impacts of sea level
rise in south east Asia, particularly Indonesia.
The last IPCC
report projected sea level rise to affect low-lying lands in the region, “increasing
the annual number of people flooded in coastal populations from 13 million to
94 million” by the end of the 21st century – 60% of this would occur
in South Asia (from Pakistan to Burma), and 20% in South East Asia (from
Thailand through to Vietnam) (IPCC, 2007). The report summarised that all Asian
coastal areas (especially low lying ones) will be increasingly under threat by
sea level rise in the coming future, with the additional risks of tropical
storms and surges. The effects will be especially devastating in this area due
to its generally high population density, and abundant economic/agricultural
activity. For example, 98.4% of Indonesian population live within 100km of a
coastline (Forster, 2010).
The impacts of
potential inundation due to rising seas will negatively affect these coastlines, as much of their economy relies on the activities that take place here, such as
farming. Another issue is the risk of freshwater resources being contaminated
with salt water. This article focuses on the Semarang area of
Indonesia. The locals are very aware of the problems of inundation, and have taken
appropriate precautionary steps such as dike construction, a pumping system,
and reconstructing houses with raised floors (see below):
However, for
additional infrastructure, they also require finance. In this article, GIS is
used to model scenarios of 120cm, and 180cm inundation and the sectors affected
them most:
It seems the
fishpond area – i.e. fish production – would be affected the most due to
changing ecosystem of the water. However of course all the other sectors will be affected to some considerable degree also.
Another article,
looking at the Sayung coastal area, pointed to coastal erosion being one of the
main issues faced, displacing settlements as a result. Their approaches to
tackle this include mangrove planting, elevation of the ground level, using
wells for freshwater access, and perhaps focusing more on the tourism sector rather
than for example fishpond farming (as this seems to be heavily affected).
From these
studies, it is clear that sea level rise is a very serious threat not just to
Indonesia, but I think all the coastal countries in this region. It will not
only cause environmental damage, but also lead to socio-economic losses.
Therefore steps need to be taken to try hold the water back for as long as
possible, although such infrastructure will require some financial aid.
Essentially, land use management needs to improve, and the locals need to work together to tackle this.
References:
Forster, H. et al (2010) 'Sea-level rise in Indonesia: on adaptation priorities
in the agricultural sector', Regional Environmental Change, 11(4): 893-904 http://www.pik-potsdam.de/members/sterzel/foerster-et-al-2011
Marfai, M. et al (2008) 'Potential
vulnerability implications of coastal inundation due to sea level rise for the
coastal zone of Semarang city, Indonesia', Environmental Geology, 54(6): 1235-1245
Marfai, M. (2012) 'Preliminary assessment of coastal erosion and local community adaptation in Sayung coastal area, central java – Indonesia', Quaestiones Geographicae, 31(3): 47-55
