Public space as water infrastructure strategy in achieving runoff flood resilience on a neighborhood scale

Abstract

Jakarta is a delta city that stands on an alluvial deposits land with 13 rivers from various parts of the city flowing through the town. It makes Jakarta vulnerable to natural disasters related to water elements, one of which is runoff flooding caused by insufficient river water capacity to accommodate an additional water volume. With the extra unaccommodated water volume, water overflows and cannot be reabsorbed by the land surface to stagnate into areas prone to flooding and disrupt people's activities. Jakarta needs an area resilience against runoff flood disasters, which can be achieved by building infrastructure that is constructed holistically against the city's water elements to accommodate temporary storage of falling rainwater. We used case studies to analyze Jakarta's existing park and its potential. We also analyzed Benthemplein Water Square, Rotterdam, Netherlands, to see how the city can build neighborhood resilience. We conclude that public space as the solution for Jakarta's runoff floods is possible as long as its site context is considered during the design phase. Rotterdam shows that even though the green area is not the dominant part, the built environment can help discharge the rainwater to the nearby river as long as it has a good infrastructure design that can accommodate rainwater storage.