Project: One Resilient Semarang

The One Resilient Team is an international group of designers, planners, engineers, scientists, academics, and community outreach coordinators, split evenly between the US, Indonesia, and elswhere. Team members have frequently collaborated in the past and have built up local capacity in and around Semarang through several ongoing projects.

ONE Architecture has in-depth experience in the ‘Resilience by Design’ approach and brings extensive multi-disciplinary process management expertise to the team. ONE guides the process towards implementable, integrated solutions.

Deltares is a global leader in ‘Disaster Risk Reduction’ planning and possesses a wealth of knowledge on water systems and subsurface evaluation, particularly in the local context of Semarang. Deltares leads the risk assessment process and helps develop a systematic water-based approach to resilience.

Wetlands International is the leading global NGO working to safeguard and restore wetlands for people and planet. As part of the core design/engineering team, it’s focus is on social/ ecological integration and project implementation.

Sherwood Design Engineers is a civil engineering practice committed to the optimal integration of ecology, infrastructure and design. Sherwood specialises in water management strategies, green building design and urban planning.

Kota Kita is the local lead and is a non-profit with expertise in urban planning and citizen participation, facilitating participation and communication with stakeholders and government. Hysteria Grobak is a community laboratory and artist collective founded in Semarang, specialising in youth empowerment and community engagement.

Iqbal Reza Fazlurrahman is an international consultant focused on business case development and economic and financial development for large-scale infrastructure projects in Indonesia.

P5 is a research group in UNDIP’s Urban Research and Planning Dept.

The ONE Resilient Semarang team worked closely with the Cascading Semarang Team to develop comprehensive project proposals for water resilience in the city of Semarang.

Site visits and meetings with a wide range of experts, local partners and governing and administrative agencies led to the refinement of the water and urban development questions that the teams would focus on for their proposals. Initial ideas and concepts were presented at meetings with local stakeholders. One workshop used serious gaming as a tool for scenario planning. The ideas generated by participants were critiqued, refined and discussed in the real context of Semarang where they could provide solutions to existing problems.

A series of five different strategies generated by both teams ultimately proposed a wide range of solutions over the entire watershed area. Upgrades are aimed at collecting and storing rainwater and delaying runoff while adding new coastal protection measures and opportunities for industry and ecology to coexist. These solutions are designed to break so-called 'vicious cycles' of water problems currently facing the city and add new opportunities for resilence.

Together, these proposals will help Semarang in dealing with its current flooding and water scarcity challenges and enable the city to accommodate future sustainable growth.

The ONE Resilient Semarang team's first proposal is for a water-neutral industrial area in Genuk.

Currently, the construction of a toll road/seawall is planned from Semarang to Demak. This new infrastructure creates an opportunity to leverage the safe land behind it to define high-capacity water-neutral industrial clusters and establish mechanisms for added-value and organizational upgrades. Project components include redeveopment and retrofitting of industrial clusters (Kawasan Industry Terboyo - KIT and Lapangan Industri Kaligawe - LIK), integration with water harvesting and retention areas, and integration with wastewater treatment, reuse, water supply and distribution.

The program is designed to add value and promote sustainable development through the revitalization of existing industrial clusters and surrounding urban areas. This program acts as a necessary step toward halting groundwater extraction and reducing land subsidence while simultaneously promoting sustainable and circular economic growth. It creates incentives to optimize land use, water supply and management systems based on rainwater harvesting, storage, conveyance, reuse and recycling.

The Network of Resilient Kampungs program incentivizes investment in decentralized green infrastructure for water, waste and energy in the kampungs.

The program proposes a new set of tools for resilient development enacted by a Resilient Kampung Guide. These Guides are representatives from the local communities who will act as leaders, advocates, and facilitators for planned infrastructure projects. The program supports ecological citizenship, participatory water planning, stewardship of shared resources, and data collection. The goal is to open new and productive channels for communication and accelerate infrastructure improvement projects for the city.

Interventions are proposed especially in kampungs with urgent issues, such as Tembalang, to improve stormwater management infrastructure and provide alternative sources for water supplies. Specific improvements include a floodable park for increased water storage capacity and a low-tech waste-to-energy facility that bolsters the local energy supply. Additional interventions are proposed in Terboyo and Trimulyo, Wonosari and Nongkosawit.

The proposal for an Integrated Protective Coastal Zone Program is an integrated vision and plan for a protective and productive coastal zone across Semarang, Kendal and Demak.

Coastal protection is strengthened using a hybrid approach that combines the installation of hard infrastructure with soft mangrove foreshores. The improved protection level will enhance long-term industrial competitiveness in the city, encourage safe and sustainable development from the inner city to the outer rural areas, and restore coastal biodiversity.

The proposal has two parts: the first relies upon the modification of the current toll road scheme to act as coastal defense infrastructure that also creates space for ecological restoration. Project components include areas defined for concentrated industry in Demak, new initiatives for ecological restoration, and river diversions in shallow areas to capture sediment. Cross-boundary collaboration between regencies is facilitated by the proposed ecological transfer mechanism for profit and cost sharing, which is designed to support opportunities for both industrial growth and ecological restoration.

The second part of the proposal is for the future-ready port in Tanjung Emas: a masterplan that similarly combines ecological restoration with coastal protection. Components include expansion of port operations on reclaimed areas with more efficient logistics, an updated design for breakwaters featuring sediment capture areas, modernization of port facilities and improved strategies for water drainage. A series of flood protection strategies include raised platforms and on-shore dune systems.