December 18, 2025 | 03:39 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Geological Agency has identified several regions across Java currently experiencing land subsidence exceeding five centimeters per year. While often associated with coastal areas, the phenomenon is also affecting highland regions like Bandung.
Critical zones include North Jakarta; the Genuk, Tanjung Mas, and Kaligawe districts of Semarang; Sayung in Demak; the Pekalongan coastline; and the northern and eastern sectors of Surabaya.
Lana Saria, Acting Head of the Geological Agency, explained that the primary geological drivers are young sediment deposits and soft soil compositions. These natural conditions are exacerbated by human activity, specifically excessive groundwater extraction, heavy building loads, and rapid, massive urbanization.
When combined with rising sea levels driven by global warming, this subsidence creates a permanent risk of chronic flooding and tidal surges. Beyond immediate water damage, the agency warns of structural degradation to infrastructure, a decline in public health and sanitation, "as well as economic losses due to the increasing cost of repairing buildings and infrastructure in the affected areas and the loss of land," Lana said in a statement on Wednesday, December 17, 2025.
She stressed that land subsidence is a long-term disaster threat with extensive consequences. The impact is most severe in dense urban centers and industrial hubs where the land has now fallen parallel to, or even below, sea level.
This shift is visible in the widespread tidal flooding across North Jakarta, Pekalongan, Semarang, and Demak, where the encroachment of permanent water bodies is effectively erasing settlements and ponds from the map.
For Jakarta specifically, however, the agency’s data offers a glimmer of cautious optimism. Measurements taken via Global Positioning System (GPS) between 2015 and 2023 show that subsidence rates within the city's groundwater basin now range from 0.05 to 5.17 centimeters per year. This marks a significant deceleration compared to the 1997–2005 period, when rates varied between 10 and 20 centimeters annually. In fact, the agency reports that the rate has been relatively imperceptible since 2020.
Despite this localized slowing, the broader challenge remains acute. A World Economic Forum (WEF) report published last November noted that certain pockets of Jakarta still experience subsidence of up to 28 centimeters. The report emphasized that both Jakarta and Semarang are among the global cities currently sinking at rates 10 to 20 times faster than the rise in sea levels, underscoring the urgent need for continued mitigation and urban planning reform.
Read: Coastal Floods and Sinking Cities: A Global Threat
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