Resilience Concept in Indonesian Small Town Development and Planning: a Case of Lasem, Central Java

Abstract

Rapid urbanization in developing countries has brought some unprecedented consequences in economic, social, and most notably environmental aspects. Many cities have to be dealing with the challenges of vulnerability as the risk of disasters increases. In responding to the challenges, the concept of urban resilience has been applied as an important part of the current development policies in many countries. In Indonesia, the current spatial policy framework has underlined the importance of integrating vulnerability and environmental carrying capacity into spatial planning document. However, attention has been mostly given to metropolitan or large urban areas. This policy imbalance has put aside the problems faced by smaller urban areas or small cities, although the growing importance of small urban areas or cities is widely understood. In fact, the problems faced by small cities are not less important compared to that of large cities or metropolitan regions, especially those which are in coastal regions. This research aims at analysing how the development and planning of small cities in coastal areas considers the resilience concept. This research applied qualitative methods based on content analysis of planning documents and secondary data. This study selected Lasem, a small urban area in eastern coastal region of Central Java with some 50,000 population, as a case. This research found that the current spatial policy framework is lacking in integrating vulnerability and resilience dimension in the policy and development processes. The research recommended some key important factors to be integrated in the future urban development model.