Risk reduction through spatial plan: A case study from Surabaya, Indonesia

Abstract

Spatial planning has a vital role in mitigating and reducing risks by discouraging settlements and other forms of development in hazard-prone areas. Integrating spatial planning and disaster risk reduction is crucial to achieving resilient cities. Selecting Surabaya City in Indonesia as a case study, this research uses a questionnaire, in-depth interview, and documentary study to evaluate the performance of Surabaya spatial planning documents on risk reduction. This paper aims to formulate substantial steps to integrate risk reduction in Indonesian spatial planning based on evaluation to Surabaya spatial plans. The result shows that the performance of Surabaya spatial plans on average is scored 2.26 out of 5, indicating that the integration of disaster risk reduction on the Surabaya spatial planning document is still low. In response to this performance gap, eight policy recommendations are formulated to improve the future Indonesian spatial plan. In conclusion, the policy recommendations for future Indonesian spatial planning in making resilient cities are; conducting comprehensive research on risk management, mainstreaming risk reduction in development policies, limiting urban development in hazard-prone areas, providing adequate risk reduction infrastructures and emergency infrastructures, considering both hazard and risk maps for land-use allocation, making a detailed land-use control based on varieties of relevant hazards, and enacting clear incentives and disincentives mechanism related to risk reduction.