Drought and flood hazards management for agricultural water users in Central Java, Indonesia

Abstract

Central Java has a huge population and is the food production area for Indonesia. Due to its geographical complexity and the human factor, it is very vulnerable to drought and flood hazards. This study aimed to analyse drought and flood events in Central Java and their impact on economic, environmental, and social aspects, as well as to evaluate the multi-hazard management in Central Java related to agriculture. Drought and flood monitoring were conducted by SPI and SPEI. Those hazard forecasting were done by correlating the selected drought index to MEI. The drought vulnerability of five municipalities in Central Java was evaluated by DVI. Proposed mitigation strategies were offered after evaluating the results and current disaster management. This study showed that SPEI-3 was the best method to determine dry and wet periods in Central Java during 1980-2010, and its correlation to MEI was relatively higher than other indices (R2=0.3612). Karanganyar is the least vulnerable region to drought (DVI=0.36) and Rembang has the highest DVI (0.59). Since numerous stakeholders are responsible for managing water availability for different sectors, then proposed improvements for current agricultural mitigation strategies are focused on government, farmers, public water supplier, and coastal residents and their particular measures.