Comparative urban capacity analysis for flood-prone areas: method and a case study of Sidoarjo, Indonesia

The main idea of this research was to seek an alternative to the current method employed to measure capacity in Sidoarjo District, Jawa Timur Province, Indonesia. Apart from its proneness to urban flooding, Sidoarjo has been suffering from the impact of hot mudflow accidents since 2006. Theoretically, there are two approaches to analyse capacity, namely institutional and spatial approach. The institutional capacity merely originated from the ability of government institutions to tackle floods; however, in a broader context, another stakeholder such as the local community also initiates the adoption of relevant measures. This research used a spatial approach to explore potential information relevant not only to impacted areas but also for risk zonation and spatial statistical analysis to compare primary data collected through interviews with ancillary data derived from the National Disaster Management Agency of the Republic of Indonesia. It revealed that Sidoarjo was likely to be exposed to floods and that unfortunately, the urban capacity was not equivalent to the hazard potential (r = 0.28, indicating weak correlation). While the government has integrated flood risk information into spatial plan documents, local preparedness in existing institutional capacity remains inadequately measured. Local commitment to regulation was found to be an influencing factor in local capacity development, although its financial support, operational implementation and other technical aspects needed to be improved. To conclude, the spatial approach enables scholars to relate capacity not only from the institutional effort, it also takes a closer look upon its hazard, vulnerability, elements at risk, spatial plan and massive grassroots initiatives to tackle urban flood.