Jakarta, Indonesia, faces a paradox. Its economy and population are soaring, but the city itself is sinking. Excessive groundwater use is causing land

Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative

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2024-12-21 18:30:06

Jakarta, Indonesia, faces a paradox. Its economy and population are soaring, but the city itself is sinking. Excessive groundwater use is causing land subsidence of up to ten inches annually. Experts warn that by 2050, the subsidence, combined with rising sea levels and extreme weather, could leave a third of the city underwater. In response, the Indonesian government is weighing plans to relocate the capital at an estimated cost of $35 billion.

Jakarta’s climate-related conundrum may be extreme, but the underlying question it raises is relevant to urban areas around the world: What is the best use of limited resources for cities to adapt to climate change?

To help answer this question, governments and organizations now have a critical new resource developed by a team at the University of Notre Dame: the Global Urban Climate Change Assessment (GUCA). It is a decision-support tool that offers leaders a way to understand and compare city vulnerabilities, assess adaptation plans, and develop resilience.

"Cities are realizing the question isn’t ‘if’ they’ll face the effects of climate change—it’s ‘when’ and ‘how,’" explains Danielle Wood, associate professor of practice at the University of Notre Dame’s Environmental Change Initiative.