Vertical forest: green open space alternative in urban area development

Abstract

Addressing environmental problems in urban areas, the Law No. 26 of 2007 has mandated local governments to preserve Green Open Space (GOS) covering minimum 30% of its area. However, some local governments barely meet this obligation due to high price of lands and budget constraints. Meanwhile, an innovation in the form of vertical forest started to be applied in developed countries may be adopted to overcome the limited land constraint for developing GOS. This study was conducted to determine the opportunities for implementing vertical forest as an alternative solution for the constraints. In addition, it also aims to find out the possibility of its application for spatial planning policies so that it supports the national sustainable development goal. This study is an explorative research with qualitative method. The study concluded that vertical forest essentially is suitable to be implemented as an alternative solution to limited land for the GOS development. From the policy perspective, the development of vertical forest can encourage the competitiveness of the green city program. Therefore, the government need to design incentive policies for local governments and the private sectors to develop vertical forest. It is also necessary to adjust GOS developing regulation to become more accommodating so that vertical forest can be recognized as part of GOS.