Urgent Measure of Geospatial Parameters for Flood Modeling in Indonesia

Abstract

Indonesia is prone to flood. Many areas including cities have a suffering flood in history until these recent days. Jakarta city, for example, had suffering flood since Dutch colonial time a few hundred years ago and even earlier until this recent year 2018. Besides Jakarta, Indonesia has other big cities like Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya and Medan which frequently suffered from the flood. Growing cities like Langsa, Pekanbaru, Palembang, Pamanukan, Garut, Cirebon, Pekalongan, Demak, Bojonegoro, Banjarmasin, Gorontalo, Bima are also suffering flood in almost regularly. The flood condition is different from time to time due to rain intensity and rivers capacity are leading to disaster. Low land areas such as coastal areas and peatland areas in many regions of Indonesia are experiencing the same disaster. Adaptation and mitigation should be taken against this flood disaster. In order to find the best adaptation and mitigation, first, we must understand the characteristic of the flood by creating flood models. Essential parameters of flood modeling would include geospatial parameters (e.g., Digital Elevation Model, Land use, and rivers geometry). Unfortunately for Indonesia's case, these geospatial parameters of the flood are still relatively weak. We can see that several flood models of Indonesia are in low accuracy spatially and temporarily. So, the measure of geospatial parameters is urgent. This paper will highlight this urgency.