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| Thu, 5th Mar 2020 14:02:00 |
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When your capital is sinking... Start again? |
Winda's house in the Indonesian city of Jakarta is sinking 20cm (8 inches) every year. She has paid for four truckloads of rocks, gravel and cement to build up the foundations. That keeps the rising sea levels from her door, but there is an unfortunate side effect.
"The ceiling is getting closer and closer with each layer we put on," she exclaims. It is now within touching distance - just 50cm (20 inches) above her head.
Jakarta's story is a cautionary tale for city planners. Vulnerable to climate change - the Java Sea is rising - but also sinking, literally, under the weight of bad governance and a host of poor decisions.
For Winda this means continuing to raise her foundations.
"Where else can we go? We don't have the option of moving," she says.
But the Indonesian government does have that option - and is taking it. It has announced it is moving its administration about 2,000km (1242 miles) to a site in the Indonesian province of East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo.
The US$34bn design is for a compact coastal city with five satellite towns, built on restored oil palm plantations and surrounded by wetlands and tropical forests. The aim is to complete the initial phase of construction by 2025.
The choice of location makes sense politically and economically - Borneo is much closer to the centre of Indonesia’s sprawling archipelago.
But the island is also home to some of the world’s most important forests, and is teeming with wildlife. It is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet.
The Indonesian leadership promises it will be a sustainable city the like of which Indonesia, and arguably the world, has never seen. Environmentalists fear however that this ambitious plan could have disastrous implications.
The architectural team which won the government-run competition to design the capital - Urban+ architects, based in Jakarta - say its aim is to work with nature, not against it.
"We want to create a city in balance with nature."
"We do have this incredible opportunity to start again – to build from nothing," says Sofian Sibarani, the head of Urban+.
"We have a chance to design something much closer to an ideal city than anything we have now."
He says the plan is that 70% of the 2500 sq km (965 sq mile) area allotted for the new city will be green space, and that the built areas will include an institute which will specialise in reforestation, and a botanical garden.
He adds that the idea is to make it a compact walkable city, with areas that are pedestrian-only, and that the additional transport that is needed will be electric.
Read original full article
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