People Perception and Participation in Disaster Risk Reduction at Surakarta City, Central Java, Indonesia

Chatarina Muryani,Sorja Koesuma,Yasin Yusup

doi:10.20961/ge.v7i1.49126

Abstract

<p><em>The research was aimed to determine (1) people knowledge level for the flood risk in Surakarta; (2) people perception of the flood risk in Surakarta; (3) community participation in the flood management in Surakarta. The city of Surakarta was chosen as the research location since this area was commonly flooded in rainy seasons and even in one year there can be floods repeatedly. Data collection methods used was field observation, structured interview and FGD. Data analysis was done by scoring. The results showed that: (1) Surakarta resident knowledge of the flood risk was in the high category. They can independently adapt to the flood disasters that often hit their area; (2) People perceptions of the flood risk disaster were in the high category. This was due to the Early Warning System (EWS) and the Search and rescue (SAR) teams information system which were well managed and easily accessed, (3) People participation in flood disaster management in Surakarta was in the "medium" category. The people participation in funding contributions and community service activities was high. However, the participation in the maintenance of water pumps, floodgates and river embankments was low.</em></p>

Highlights

The importance of stakeholder participation in decision making, and in particular flood risk management, has been recognized by international and regional treaties such as the Aarhus Convention, which encourages people participation in decision-making on environmental issues, and the European Flood Directive 2007/60/EC, which requires the establishment of a people participation mechanism to ensure citizen involvement in the flood management cycle (Wehn et al, 2015)
By knowing the perceptions and participation of the community, it can be used for policy making in subsequent flood management
The frequent occurrence of floods was due to the location of Surakarta city which is on the outskirts of Bengawan Solo River, which is the longest river on Java Island

Summary

Stakeholders to be Contacted 78 13 16 13

From the aspect of knowledge, people that living in flood-prone areas in Surakarta city had high knowledge of disaster risks, early warning systems (EWS), evacuation locations and stakeholders who must be contacted if they need assistance in the disaster case. It could be stated that the attention of stake holders and the information system was running well. A high level of knowledge will make it easier for the government to increase community disaster resilience. 2. Perception of flood risk The results of interviews regarding public perceptions on flood risk in Surakarta could be presented in the following table

Trust in flood prevention 260 192 50 15 517 buildings

Participation in making biopore 56 120 96 34 306