Project-induced displacement: Rethinking the impact of spatial planning and disaster mitigation policies in Tambakrejo, Semarang City

Abstract

Development in accordance with disaster mitigation policies in urban areas sometimes involves relocation and forced eviction of people living in informal settlements. Semarang City has the same experience. In 2019 the normalization project of the Banjir Kanal Timur river as a government effort to control flooding had displaced the local communities in Tambakrejo. This paper aims to criticize the implementation of flood disaster mitigation projects that impact poor households and assess their livelihood assets after displacement. Utilizing spatial data and primary data collection using the purposive sampling method were carried out during the fieldwork. The findings highlight that, irrespective of potential opportunities to avoid local communities from flood risk and safer place to live, on the other hand, local communities experience impacts on their livelihood assets and unclear compensation for their assets. This phenomenon proves that there are still many challenges to creating safe, comfortable, and sustainable urban development mandated in Law No. 26 of 2007. In the name of national projects, this action has taken away the “right to the city”, has increased marginalized urban communities, and the emergence of urban social issues such as the affected communities’ dissatisfaction with local government authorities