11 - Investing in flood adaptation in Jakarta, Indonesia

Abstract

The Sendai Framework for Action 2015–2030 stresses the priority of investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience. Climate change adaptation (CCA) measures are risk-reduction investments that aim to increase individuals' capacity for building resilience. However, the evaluation of CCA faces many challenges due to the multiple uncertainties involved. Considering adaptation as a process, this chapter explores vulnerability drivers at different scales to foresee CCA's success. Our study focuses on the impact of governmental formal adaptation initiatives on the capacity of vulnerable communities to build their own resilience. We explore this topic by taking Jakarta as a case study, as it is one of the most dynamic Asian megacities exposed to climate change. We base our analysis on structured interviews and a survey with 451 households who live in flood-prone areas of coastal Jakarta. Our main conclusion is that formal adaptation challenges the preservation of informal capacities of vulnerable groups to build their resilience and thus has as an unintended consequence the creation of other risks in the long term. As such, this study significantly contributes to the low-regret adaptation discourse by identifying enabling factors to reduce risks.