EVALUATING SPATIAL DATA QUALITY AND PREPAREDNESS OF THE INDONESIAN WATERSHED MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY IN MITIGATING LANDSLIDE AND FLOOD DISASTERS

During the past four years, Indonesia has been experiencing a series of disaster. Apart from the earthquakes and tsunamis that hit the country, landslides and floods have been the most prominent disasters that are strongly influenced by mismanagement of environment. In response to those problems, the Ministry of Forestry is trying to develop a standard operating procedure (SOP) for controlling and mitigating erosion, landslide, and flood based on the watershed management unit. The SOP is expected to be run by every regional watershed management body (RWMB), which acts as the spearhead in supplying spatial data, modeling, mapping and monitoring to control and minimize the landslide and flood disaster impacts. RWMB’s recommendation will then be used as a basis for conservation and regreening programs. This study tried evaluate the RWMB’s preparedness in the aforementioned activities, by assessing the spatial data availability and quality of 31 RWMBs covering the entire land area of Indonesia. Each RWMB covers several watersheds and or small islands. To do so, site visits and interview with the RWMB staff through questionnaire were undertaken. With regard to the SOP, the spatial data that were assessed comprise rainfall, soils, geology, landform, slope, relief, land-cover/land-use, hydrology, as well as their derived information like the recommended land-use function, flood susceptibility, landslide susceptibility, erosion hazard, and critical land. Evaluation was also carried out by considering the availability of technical staff, GIS/remote sensing softwares and hardwares. It was found that most RWMBs do not have adequate spatial data, in terms of both completeness and quality. These weaknesses were disheartened by the lack of GIS/remote sensing technical staff and softwares. Due to this current situation, the RWMBs could not act properly in mapping, monitoring, modeling and controlling the landslide and flood disasters in every watershed. Based on this findings, its is recommended that the Ministry of Forestry should encourage the use of remote sensing and GIS technology in every RWMB, improve the availability and quality of the spatial data in terms of in-house training, as well as increase co-operation with other institutions.