The yearly State of the Map Asia (SotM Asia) conference started on November 16–18, 2023, in the center of bustling Bangkok, Thailand. It quickly became a hub for policymakers, developers, …
In the bustling metropolis of Jakarta, the rapid expansion of highways and buildings is a testament to the city’s growth. Within six months, the highways expanded by an impressive 0.97%, …
In 2004, Steve Coast introduced OpenStreetMap (OSM), a platform designed to provide unrestricted geospatial data to a worldwide audience. OSM is a testament to global collaboration, where volunteers, whether armchair …
Special District Capital of Jakarta (DKI Jakarta) is Indonesia’s most densely resided province, with 10.6 million residents (Indonesia Statistics, 2021). Due to immigration and industrialization, DKI Jakarta has become a megacity with the highest population density of 15,978 people per square kilometer (Indonesia Statistics, 2021). However, this rapid population growth in Jakarta led to several issues, including shrinking agricultural land.
Across various slums in Indonesia, inhabitants’ resilience consistently stands out. Dwellers of these slums face multiple hardships in their everyday lives, encompassing modest incomes, confined living conditions in hazardous zones …
It is undeniable that language is a cultural heritage, often serving as a defining aspect of a culture’s ethnic identity. an alarming reality looms as approximately 40% of traditional languages confront the threat of extinction, with nearly 3,000 languages facing potential disappearance by the century’s end (UNESCO, 2022). This decline is spurred by globalization, modernization, the blending of international cultures, and the dwindling number of speakers. In response, UNESCO designated February 21 as International Mother Language Day to combat this imminent loss.
Water is the essence of life, sustaining all living organisms on our planet. However, uncontrolled water flow can pose serious threats, leading to flooding and potential damage to homes and buildings. To address this challenge, watersheds play a crucial role. Also known as drainage basins, watersheds are regions of land where water collects and streams into larger bodies of water, ensuring a controlled flow.
Indonesia confirmed its first cases of COVID-19 on 2 March 2020, when a dance instructor and her mother tested positive after arriving from Japan. The country encountered significant difficulties in containing the virus due to its large population, high population density in specific regions, and limited healthcare resources in certain areas. Consequently, by 9 April 2020, the pandemic had reached all 34 provinces in Indonesia. As of 5 June 2023, Indonesia has reported 6,812,127 COVID-19 cases, the second highest in Southeast Asia. Regarding fatalities, Indonesia ranks second in Asia and ninth globally, with 161,879 deaths recorded.
Floods are a relatively common occurrence in Indonesia due to the country’s geographical location, climate patterns, and natural topography. Indonesia experiences riverine and coastal flooding, varying frequencies depending on the region. Over the years, the densely populated capital and its surrounding cities (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi, Puncak, and Cianjur or Jabodetabek-Punjur) have experienced catastrophic flooding, most recently in 2020.
There are many things to implement free and open spatial data, such as disaster response mapping to evacuate the victims, road network mapping for transportation systems, and so forth. However, those can only be implemented when spatial data is available. Participatory mapping, as a collaborative map-making process utilizing OpenStreetMap as a freely accessible platform, involves the active involvement of government, scholars, and communities as key stakeholders. This approach is essential for collectively identifying and mapping geographic features, especially in disaster-prone regions, where sharing spatial data has historically posed significant challenges in Indonesia. The goal of participatory mapping is to generate and share openly available spatial data that can be accessed by the public, addressing the need for collective and accessible information in these areas. From the beginning of 2022 until the end of March 2022, Indonesia witnessed over 1000 natural disasters, resulting in approximately 1.5 million individuals affected, as reported by the National Agency for Disaster Management (BNPB) of Indonesia.
