Critical land has caused degradation of Drainage Basins in Indonesia. Government has taken measures to reforest the drainage basins and rehabilitation of critical lands through various programmes. Some of the programmes have been successful that added up to the size of the forests, including those in Kulon Progo regency. Landslides, however, still occur which threaten the lives of people.
In her doctoral promotion at Faculty of Forestry UGM defending her dissertation entitled Spatial and Semantic Model Integration of Agent’s Role in Use of Forest Lands Vulnerable to Landslides in Kulon Progo Yogyakarta, Siti Djuariah said Kulon Progo is an area prone to landsliding. Most of its topography are hillsides with geological structure that is difficult to absorp water, but some other areas have good vegetation diversitites.
Those areas that are prone to landsliding in Kulon Progo are those that lie on the Menoreh hillsides, covering all villages in that sub-district. The areas of Samigaluh, Kalibawang, Girimulyo and Kokap are dominated by medium-high level of landslides possibilities while Nanggulan and Pengasih low to medium levels.
"The villages that have high vulnerabilities to landslides need special attention, particularly settlement areas and public facilities,” she said on Monday (28/8) during her promotion.
Siti Djuariah recommended that the drafting of spatial arrangement of areas prone to disasters needs to take into account the biophysical condition, planting patterns, and vegetation or forest plants that are suitable to the condition. The land evaluation in this research is expected to be used for spatial review of Kulon Progo regency in 2017, later to be socialised intensively to the local people by the authorities.
"Institutions such as Regional Planning Development Agency, Forestry Agency, BPPD, KP4K, and district levels as well as instructors – whether from agriculture, fishery and forestry – need to focus on the condition of landslide vulnerabilities to give input to the local people on adaptation to their environment,” she said.