The “Regional Sea Level Changes and Coastal Impacts” conference was one of the world’s leading conferences on this topic organized jointly by the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC). Hosted by the Columbia University, New York, the conference addressed existing challenges and uncertainties in sea level research. During five highly productive days 350 interdisciplinary participants from 41 different countries followed oral and poster presentations on past and contemporary sea level changes, modelling, future projections and challenges for coastal zones.
I presented an interdisciplinary poster titled “Coastal and Regional Sea Level Rise, Subsidence and Collective Adaptation Processes in Semarang, Indonesia” jointly with Boris Braun (Institute of Geography – University of Cologne), and Tilo Schöne and Julia Illigner (Geodetic Hazard Monitoring– GFZ Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam). The presentation focused on the city of Semarang, Central Java. With a population of 2 million, Semarang shows significant subsidence rates of several cm/a, which is mainly driven by groundwater extraction and surface load. Such high rates have major consequences for the population, their living conditions, and economical behavior, and require action on the political and governmental level. The major/principal/main questions we addressed are: What are the reasons for frequent flooding in Semarang?; and how are coastal dwellers able to survive in a highly flood-prone environment? The discussions during the poster session were highly productive and gave new ideas for the data analysis. An international journal publication of this case study is planned for the end of this year.

Lisa-Michéle Bott
Research fellow and PhD student

PhD project: “Building adaptive capacity towards sea level rise in Indonesia through translocal social capital”

Institute of Geography

Coastal and Regional Sea Level Rise, Subsidence and Collective Adaptation Processes in Semarang, Indonesia (Poster)
http://www.sealevel2017.org/