The ecological vulnerability of Semarang’s coastal waters, a brief review

Abstract

As the capital city of the Central Java Province, Semarang has a very unique regional profile. Economic activity in Semarang has accelerated rapidly and many industrial estates have been established, but the latent problem of inundation and subsidence has been a threat in the northern region of the city for almost a century. Under these conditions, the burden of pollution as a by-product of various activities in the coastal and upland areas becomes a threat magnification for ecological sustainability of coastal waters and surrounding areas. This review will reveal the ecological vulnerability of coastal waters based on biogeochemical aspects. The major references for the review were several research papers dan repots based on the research activities of The Research Centre for Oceanography, Indonesian Science Institute (LIPI) in Semarang coastal water on the last decade. Geological studies, heavy metal contamination and retrospection study using benthic foraminifera as proxies based on two core samples are the major aspects on the review. The results show that the eastern coastal of Semarang was more susceptible to ecological disasters such as accretion, pollution of several metals and total suspended solids compared to the western coastal waters. Retrospective study based on core sample showed that Pb and Zn contaminations were occurred higher at the East Flood Canal estuary since 1910, so was the imprint of hypoxia was found since 1939.