Flood Management

Case Study: Upper Citarum River Basin

Firdha Cahya Alam

25315029
Sustainable Water Management Dialogue
Environmental Engineering ITB
2016

Key Issues
Flood is one of the type of disasters that more
frequently occurring, compared to earthquakes,
volcanic eruption, drought and landslides.
From 2000 to 2009, it is estimated that 61 floods
happened in Indonesia, causing 2,810 deaths, 3.4
million people affected, and 1,615 million USD in
financial damage, making Indonesia one of the most
flood-affected countries in Southeast Asia. The flood
damages are not limited to physical losses such as
infrastructure and houses but also include socioeconomic losses such as economic stagnation and
poverty. [1]

Citarum River Basin is the

largest and longest river in West Java
Province. The catchment area is
around 12,000 km2. This river basin
has many functions. For energy, it
generates 1.400 MW of electricity. It
also serves almost 420,000 ha of
irrigation area and supplies drinking
water to 80% population of Jakarta
about 16 m3/s [2].
Unfortunately, Citarum is classified as
a watershed that has suffered severe
damage and was always troubled by
floods. Almost every year there
would be flooding in the region,
especially in the Upper Citarum
Basin area of Bandung [3].

 Actually, flood is not only caused by

rain that consequently causes the
overflowing of surface (run-off)
water, but also by the change of land
usage, for example forest/land
clearing and development in the
water absorption area [4].
According to the research of Upper
Citarum River Management [5], it
was researched about several factors
that probably contribute the flood

1. Land-use change has had a

significant effect on the runoff
and river flows in the upper
Citarum basin. It is estimated
that since 1900 the flood
related river flows have
increased with about 20%, by
land use change alone, which
contributes about 30% to the
observed increase of high flows
at Nanjung. Beside increased
flows the land use and land
management change is causing
significantly higher erosion
rates and thus higher
sedimentation both in the
downstream river system and
downstream Saguling. [5]

2. Climate change: Rainfall patterns show decreasing

trends. This might be important for future water
supply, but it can be concluded that increasing floods
cannot be explained by increased rainfall and thus
climate change has so far had no influence on
increasing floods [5].

3. Flood plain topography change: severe subsidence is causing large

topographic changes in the flood plain and has large impact on flood patterns,
drainage and river hydraulics. The impact on flood related river flows could not been
determined as historic topographic series are not available and recent topography is
not reliable enough. Compared to flow change due to land use change and river
topography change the impact will not be very significant. But the subsidence has
a significant effect on local drainage and flood patterns in the upper
Citarum basin [5].
4. River topography change: It was observed that the net effect of the Urgent
Flood Control Project (UFCP) river improvements (such as dredging, normalization,
excavation) upstream of Nanjung (part of Upper Citarum) has resulted in 45% higher
peaks at Nanjung which contributes about 70% to the observed increase of high
flows[5].

Key Findings
In 2010, in the Ministerial
RenStra, the flood
management strategy is
formulated as part of the
main topics described in
the water law:
Conservation, Utilization,
Disaster Mitigation,

 Besides that, there is an agreement between The

Government of Japan and Indonesia through JICA to
implement project of disaster management for Upper
Citarum Basin River. Those are:
1) Civil Works
- Component A: River Improvement Works (channel
normalization, channel excavation, and bank slope
protection)
- Component C: Sediment Control (construction of
check dams)
2) Consulting services
- Component B: Institutional strengthening for the
Citarum River Basin, Organization or Balai Besar
Wilayah Sungai Citarum (BBWSC) and Capacity
Development for Community against Flood Disaster.
Review of detailed design, monitoring for
environmental issues and land acquisition, tender
assistance, construction supervision, etc. [1]

 There are also a number of non-technical

things that can be done to avoid flood.
Solution to flood problems by using nontechnical considerations involves behavior
and habits of the people. The most
important thing is the consideration as to
where this mitigation effort will end. Thus it
is important to identify every non-technical
thing related with mitigation, those are [6]:
1. Community habit, especially
concerning waste (solid and liquid) disposal.
2. Community knowledge of flood
orientation, and the direction of its
occurrence; so that people may plan the
development of their houses and residential
areas accordingly.
3. Determining locations safe from the
flood and work to improve the location
4. Seek help in making buildings flood-

Summary of Key Findings

Flood of Citarum River Basin is a complex problem that need
many aspect of solution.
The cause of the flood mostly by the land use change and land
topography change.
Whereas, the solution of the flood generally can used by
conservation, disaster mitigation, supported by utilization of
water, information system, and community participation.
Those all are only general solution for the Citarum River Basin
Flood, actually there a ton of practical solution that have been
doing by the Government and also collaborating with Japan or
Asian Development Bank.

Reference
[1]http://www.jica.go.jp/english/our_work/evaluation/oda_loan/economic_cooperation/
c8h0vm000001rdjt-att/indonesia130328_03.pdf diakses 16 April 2016)
[2] Cita-citarum. Citarum River Basin Organization (Balai Besar Wilayah Sungai
Citarum)
[3] (Hamdani, Adang., Kartiwa, Budi. 2014. Mapping And Economic Impact Analysis
Of Flood On Rice Field In Upper Citarum Watershed, Indonesia. Indonesian Agency
for Agricultural Research and Development (IAARD).)
[4] Cuny. F.C., 1983. Disaster and Development. New York: Oxford University Press.).
[5] ___ 2012. Upper Citarum Basin Flood Management. Flood Management Strategy.
Deltares. In Association with ITB - PT. Waindo Specterra, PT Wiratman & Associates
[6] (Teti. A. Argo. 2001. Floods, Risks, Management And Mitigation A Non-Technical
Aspect Review. The Institute for Research ITB.Training Community Participation
for Mitigation of Floods)
[7] Integrated Citarum Water Resources Management & Investment Program.
http://citarum.org/en/citarum-knowledge-2/publication/cita-citarum-photoreport/138-iwrm-in-the-citarum-river-basin/file.html. diakses pada tanggal 16 April
2016

Thank You