THE IMPORTANCE OF LAND USE AND STRUCTURAL DESIGN FOR BETTER

COASTAL COMMUNITY RESILIENCE

(Case Study: Pangandaran Toursim Area)

Mizan B. FUADY1 and Heru RAMANDA2

ABSTRACT:
The aim of this research was to investigate the impact of several land use and structural design
development for creating better coastal community resilience in Pangandaran Tourism Area. Research
framework mainly taken from How Resilient is Your Coastal Community – A Guide For Evaluating
Coastal Community Resilience to Tsunamis and Other Hazards” (US Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning
System Program, 2007), especially for measuring the capacity of land use and structural design aspect.
Land use and structural design capacity benchmark then divided into four capacities which are policy
and planning, physical and natural, social, and also technical and financial. Several in-depth interviews
have been conducted to key actors which involved in those activities to gather broaden knowledge
about how the plan and the structural design were built. Field observation also been conducted so that
researcher can precisely judge whether the structural construction has benefits the effort for disaster
and climate change mitigation.

The progress of this research shows that there are lack of coordination among the process and results
between plans or policy from one actor to another. As for the structural aspect, several constructions
have been developed properly like the retaining wall in the east coast, evacuation building, and so on.
However several structural construction are also have not optimum yet, like the trees in the coastal
forest seldom destroyed during high tourism season, construction of houses or buildings that not
anticipated the sea level rise risk, and so on. Therefore, this research will produce several
recommendations to enhance the quality of land use plan and the structural design impact for better
community resilience in Pangandaran Tourism Area.

KEYWORDS: Resilience, Land Use, Stuctural Design, Pangandaran Tourism Area

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Preface

Land use and structural design was one of the most important aspects for creating better coastal
communities resilience (IOTWSP, 2007). Pangandaran tsunami in 2006 and the raising awareness to
the climate change issue was a trigger for stakeholder in Pangandaran to build a more resilience
communities as well as the area itself for the upcoming disaster risk or climate change effects. This
commitment is important; since Pangandaran is not a just place for the people but also as one of the
popular international tourism destination in West Java.

1
Research Assistant, Regional and Rural Research Group, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia
2
Undergraduate student, Civil Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia

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Several activities have been conducted by different actors for that purpose. For example The Ministry
of Public Works has assisted the establishment of spatial plan guidance for Pangandaran Tourism Area
including the zoning regulations to make the area resilience to the disaster risk. UNWTO appointed
Pangandaran as the role model for sustainable tourism development by gathering stakeholder, creating
working group, and developed master plan. The Ciamis Regency itself has establish the Disaster
Management Agency, revised and creating a new spatial planning including Pangandaran Tourism
Area, and also construct several structural design alike retaining wall in the east Pangandaran coast,
coastal forest in the west coast, evacuation route, open space allocation, and so on for that occasion.
After the tsunami, people from Pangandaran assisted by DMC-Pangandaran are also create document
what they called the Pangandaran Community Settlement Plan, a post tsunami rehabilitation plan that
incorporated mitigation substance for future disaster and climate change risk funded by the Java
Recovery Fund.

1.2 Objective

The aim of this research was to investigate the impact of several land use planning and structural
design to the leverage of Pangandaran Tourism Area’s resiliency.

1.3 Study Area

The study area which being covered in this paper was the Pangandaran Tourism Area, Ciamis
Regency, West Java, Indonesia. The Pangandaran Tourism Area covers four villages in southern part
of Ciamis Regency, which are Pangandaran Village, Pananjung Village, Wonoharjo Village, and
Cikembulan Village.

Figure 1. Study Area

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2. METHODOLOGY

For this research, basically we adapt the framework from “How Resilient is Your Coastal Community
– A Guide For Evaluating Coastal Community Resilience to Tsunamis and Other Hazards (US Indian
Ocean Tsunami Warning System Program, 2007). The document stated that there are eight aspects in
defining whether a community have high resilience to such disaster risks. Those eight are governance,
social and economy, coastal management resourece, land use and structural design, risk knowledge,
warning and evacuations, emergency response, and recovery. Thus, all the eight then being evaluated
by four core capacities which are the policy and planning, physical and natural, social and cultural, as
well as technical and financial capacity. The framework suggesting some descriptive benchmark with
several potential assessment question in addition. Therefore, findings which may appear relatively to
each questions can be arranged and valuated from 1 – 5, determine it as a strong or weakness, and also
defining the gap for each benchmark. On this occasion the framework table like it’s show on the figure
below :

Table 1. Land Use and Structural Design Benchmark Analysis and Summary

Benchmark Findings / Related Key Strength Weakness Data Rating

Points to Community Gaps
Resilience
Land Use and Structural Benchmark : Effective land use and structural design that complement
environmental, economic, and community goals and reduce risks from hazards.
Land use policies and building
standards that incorporate
measures to reduce risks from
hazards and protect sensitive
habitats are established,
monitored, and enforced.
Critical infrastructure are located
outside high risk areas and
constructed to address risks from
priority hazards.
Developers and communities
incorporate risk reduction into the
location and design of structures.
Education, outreach, and training
programs are established to
improve compliance with land
use polices and building
standards.
Source : IOTWSP, 2007

In order to gain reliable information for determining the resiliency level, several activities has been
conducted. Those were in-depth interview with local authorities, related NGOs and CBOs, as well as
builders and developers. We also observe several main structural design such as roads, houses, escape
building, sign system, vital infrastructure, drainage, retaining walls, coastal forest, and so on.

3. ARGUMENTS FOR LAND USE AND STRUCTURAL DESIGN

As mentioned before, the land use and structural design was one of the elements of resilience
according to the US-IOTWSP (2007). The main argument from the concept is because the land use
and structural design may equipt the society or community to absorb the disaster pressure in a better
ways as well as give more capacity to bounce back after the disaster. Optimum land use allocation

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may minimize the victims due to disaster. As for the powerful structure or built environment may
gives such capacity to undertake pressure resulted by the disastrous event.

Twigg (2007) whom define resiliency as a manner of community to absorb stress, retain certain basic
functions during distratous event, and bounce back after the disaster; also highlight and incorporated
the land use and structural design.Thus, both of them were took part at the role of “risk management
and vulnerability reduction” theme at the Twigg’s concept of resilience. Twigg was emphasizing for
the protection of basic infrastructure through safer placement and the implementation of various
construction standard. Twigg later on define the importance of existence of supportive environment to
this aspects, such as the law enforcement, linkages to education and scientific matters, protection to
environment, and infrastructure maintenance.

Other scholar whom highlight this importance were Timmerman and White (1997), they found that
policy-makers were ill-prepared to study or plan at the interface between the built and natural
environemtanl components to the city. Pelling (2003) then added a note that policy and planning
institutions were oriented towards disaster response rather than preparation or mitigation. Therefore,
such strengthening in land use plan and structural design were needed.

Johnston (2006) noted that as a part of developing community resilience, it is neccessary to consider
and account for the robustness of community’s infrastructure. Johnston then mentioning the need of
better structural design for lifelines which to the extent that lifelines supports community’s day to day
activities and included the mechanisms used to respond to emergencies. However, King (2006), have
slightly different view that planners can not plan resilience. They make plans that reduce vulnerability
and enhance mitigation, and they may contribute to the future resilience of the community through
good design, creation of a sense of space, and the provision of appropriate services and facilities.

4. FINDINGS

4.1 Policy and Planning Capacity in Land Use and Structural Design

The policy and planning capacity in term of land use and structural design appliances for strenghening
the resilience measured by the existence of land use policy as well as building code which relevant due
to the risk, implemented, and being law enforced. For Pangandaran Tourism Area, there were already
two type of plans which may become the fundamental baseline. The first was the Community
Settlement Plan (CSP) which being developed and implemented at each of the villages. As the second
was The Pangandaran Area Land Use Plan, which being planned by the Ministry of Public Works as a
pilot or example for other regions in Indonesia for developing similar type of planning.

The Pangandaran Area Land Use Plan developed as a micro-part of Land Use Plan in Southern Part of
Java Island. Those micro-part basically dedicated as an example so that other regions apart of Ciamis
Regency may conducted similar activity. However, it was actually gave such base principal for a detail
spatial arrangement in the Pangandaran Tourism Area. Thus, it was assign the land use availability for
each part of villages which then being detailed into block and zone. For each zones, the plan have
already calculate the area, characteristic, and zone assignment. As an example, the map of this plan
can be viewd at the Figure 2 below. Despite the fact that several findings shows that there were
unmatch land use, the biggest problem lies in term of coordination among governmental agencies in
the manner so that this output may be followed up at the local level. The internal source from the
Local Govenrment of Ciamis Regency also backs this, as follows :
“The next thing to do is synchronisation and the enactment of spatial plan law through
perda.This should then incorporated the CSP, Pangandaran Area Land Use Plan from the
Ministry of Public Works, which all and all embeded at the Ciamis Regency Spatial Plan
(RTRW).”
(Actor 1, Ciamis Regency Planning Agency)

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 Figure 2. Ilustration of Pangandaran Area Land Use Plan

Source : Ministry of Public Works

As for the enactment of CSP basically started as a part of rehabilitation due to the Tsunami in 2006.
The Donor as well as the NGO which assist the community to enact the CSP aims to empower them in
the manner so that they may determine which type of infrastructure they need in order to help them
bounce back and prepared for future disater risk. It is a combination between spatial planning
approach, community based disaster management approach, and participatory risk appraissal. As the
result, The CSP contains division of the land by the community between an utilized area and
conservation area. The conservation area covers the Pananjung Natural Park, coastal bank, and river
bank. On the other hand, utilized area divided to agriculture area, business area, tourism area, and
settlements. It was indeed not a detailed yet scientific as the previous one, but it was adequate enough
to educate the people in general about where the location approriate enough to be used by the people.

4.2 Physical and Natural Capacity in Land Use and Structural Design

Public infrastructure that has been available has to be integrated with buildings and roads that are
available. Buildings must meet the standards that must be owned by a public building. A safe building
must be designed and constructed in accordance with the rules that are used in Indonesia. To support
the optimization of functions of its existence should be reviewed with other infrastructure, as coastal
areas, the presence of sea water overflow anticipation building such as building a breakwater is needed
to minimize the impact of disasters that would arise. Existence of natural vegetation is still very
necessary for example, mangrove forests to prevent abrasion caused by sea water.

Government as policy makers must have the courage to be assertive in any regulations that have been
compiled. Any society that wants to construct buildings must have an official permit issued by local
governments. The role of the government not only limited to giving permission but rather to control
the time of execution. Any construction must comply with the design that has also been known to and
approved by the supervisor. Executors building owners whom change the function of the building
when the planning and execution is a form of ethical violations of building planning.

The information of the importance for identifying and understanding the disasters factor and the
preparednes to face it is using the local wisdom. Indonesian people easier to identify disasters that will
occur with the natural phenomenon previously shown by legends and myths such as the local
culture. Government disaster prone areas need to reform the policy and institutional framework for
disaster management that encourages the emergence of safety culture as a shared responsibility of all
stakeholders in regional development. (Plan of Action for the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of
Earthquake disaster in Prov. West Java and Cilacap District Prov. Central Java, Bappenas, page. 74)

The positive practice in terms of natural and physical capacity in land use and structural design
elementes were the allocation of basic yet critical infrastructure which already at the safe zone.
Infrastructure like Pangandaran Sub District Office, Village Offices, local health center (Puskesmas),

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Police office, Radio transmission, Fire fighter, local terminal, Main electrical station, and local airfield
basically placed more than 1 km from the beach.

Other positive practice for this capacity was the construction of the local road by the community as
part of the CSP implementation. It was being known that the total road constructed by the community
at the whole four villages may reach the number of 100 local roads. This devided into imporvement of
the road construction and also the installation of lightning for night time evacuation. At some places it
also equiped by direction board to give information about the direction for evacuation route.

Figure 3. Example of Physical and Natural Capacity

Source : Observation, 2009

4.3 Social and Cultural Capacity in Land Use and Structural Design

Construction of earthquake resistant houses have already started accustomed force in society. Given
the frequent earthquakes Pangandaran area and will possibly larger earthquake and tsunami
potential. Learned from the earthquake and tsunami in Aceh, rehabilitation and reconstruction of
houses and other buildings have introduced a system of earthquake resistant buildings. Settlements
improvement should follow the technical standards of earthquake resistance in accordance with
regulations and legislation. Rebuilding the infrastructure and settlements must based on the guidlines
of technical planning with attention to input from other agencies / institutions and community
aspirations. Pattern of development with community involvement will provide a sense of ownership of
a high impact on the house.

To build earthquake-resistant homes are not as difficult as one might imagine. Construction
procedures similar to procedures commonly done before, it's just that there is a difference in the
connection detail. Standard planning and house building earthquake resistant buildings must comply
with the rules of SNI 03-2847 - 2002 and SNI - 03 - 1726-2002. In this manner, the application of
appropriate design and use of better equipment is done by developing the design and development of
research results, considering the damage, local wisdom and adjust the level of vulnerability to disasters
in the area.

Therefore, the construction in the field must be the same as what it was stated at the plan and design,
both calculation of the structure and the quality and quantity of materials used. It often happens is the
incompatibility of materials used, whether the volume is reduced or specifications used inferior by
reason of the inadequacy of the cost.

One of the positive social and cultural practice in Pangandaran Tourism Area was the process of local
roads construction. The material being used by the construction was concrete which being installed
together by the people. There was a reason for that action which by using the concrete then the

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construction process may undertake by the community together. Therefore the design process,
purchasing process, and resource usage being done under supervision of all the community member. It
was also strengthening the social capital within the community.

The demanding necessity from the community due to this capacity was the existence of an example for
constructing stronger house. It is what should be provided by the local government in term of their
social capacity. Therefore, the public may have 3 dimensional example rather than only an image
through a guideline poster which already existed. This also may elevate the exsistence potential where
eventhough nowadays builder didn’t have adequate academical knowledge in constrution, but they
were already have basic knowledge about the construction.

4.4 Technical and Financial Capacity in Land Use and Structural Design

If many houses destroyed by earthquake and tsunami, it must be held socialization of how to build
earthquake resistant houses. What should be taken account is providing education, counseling and
training in the conventional development planning and modern. Trained bulilders and carpenters
founded at the study area able to build simple earthquake-resistant building construction. At the larger
scale, construction seminars can be conducted in academic circles. Preparation of technical design
guidelines for earthquake resistant construction of simple houses and then socialized. Forms of
socialization can be exercised when making building license. Community building owners will get the
standard guidelines and procedures to establish an earthquake-resistant building. Owners of buildings
should be more concerned with the planning and execution. At the larger scale buildings, each party
which responsible for the project must meet the applicable requirements.

Capacity imporvement due to the technical and financial also limited because there was no local
academic institutions which provide education to the builder in a academically manner. Several NGOs
which existed and also past Ministry of Public Work’s project didn’t maximise the transfer of
knowledge about the better ways of construction. As for the financial capacity, there were no support
or incentive which may endorse capacity imporevement. The only financial support exist were for
large scale hotels or economic activities which have access to insurance and the aid for fishermen
settlement respectively to the 2006’s Tsunami.

Figure 4. Example of Stuctural Design Construction in Pangandaran

Source : Observation, 2009

5. CONCLUSION

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In general we may see that there are positive and negative elements in praticing land use and structural
design elements in Pangandaran Toursim Area. Spatial planning as land use assignment tool relatively
more advance in terms of the preparation of its product. As for structural design, there was still an
imbalance practice between those construction under government or big company with public
settlement or which in kind. Full coverage of benchmark fulfillment provided at Table 2 below.

From the indexed findings, we may see that Land Use and Structural Design gain average point at 2
out of 5 as top point for maximum resilience. This is quite good, even though a lot of homework need
to be improve in order to leverage the point of resiliency. That mark basically placed Land Use and
Structural Design at the 7th place of resilience element among the all eight elements (Fuady, 2010).

Table 2. Findings for Land Use and Structural Design Elements in Pangandaran Tourism Area

BENCHMARK FINDINGS STRENGTH WEAKNESS GAP RATING

D. Effective land use and structural design that complement environmental, economic, and community goals
and reduce risks from hazards.
D1. Land use  Spatial Plan : CSP S Spatial
policies and building and Pangandaran planning in
standards that Area Spatial Plan public
incorporate measures  Absent of building domain need
to reduce risks from code and its W to be
hazards and protect enfrocement supported by
sensitive habitats are  Spatial plan didn’t law 2
established, supported by law enforcement
monitored, and enforcement W and practical
enforced.  Spatial plan started actions
to be a S
consideration in
day to day matters
D2. Critical  Basic and crtitical S Lessons
infrastructure are infrastructure learned and
located outside high placed at the safe guideline for
risk areas and zone community
constructed to  Construction of to undertake
address risks from structural practice in
priority hazards. mitigation S maintaning 3
appliances critical
 Absent of infrastructure
incentive
mechanism to W
promote disaster
based construction
D3. Developers and  CSP gave guidance S The need of 2
communities for development education
incorporate risk  Construction and social
reduction into the principle haven’t W network to
location and design considered as enhance
of structures. necessitu practice in
 Spatial W spatial
socialization and control and 137
building code still building
unsufficient code

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  The raising of S
awareness about
disaster based
construction
D4. Education,  There is no W Development
outreach, and training or and
training programs education for local education
are established to developer W practices
improve compliance  There is no
with land use polices academic
and building institutions which
standards. 1
leverage
community
capacity in
construction
 Community egar to S
gain technical and
financial support

6. REFERENCES

1. ---------- . 2007 . Arahan Pemanfaatan Ruang Pantai Selatan Jawa Bagian Barat . Jakarta :
Kementrian Pekerjaan Umum
2. ---------- . 2007 . How Resilient is Your Coastal Community – A Guide For Evaluating Coastal
Community Resilience to Tsunamis and Other Hazards” Bangkok : US Indian Ocean Tsunami
Warning System Program
3. ---------- . 2008 . Rencana Pembangunan Permukiman Desa Pangandaran . Pangandaran : DMC
Pangandaran
4. Johnston, David . Paton, Douglas . 2006 . Disaster Resilience : An Integrated Approach . Illinois :
Charles C. Thomas Publisher
5. Pelling, Mark . 2003 . The Vulnerability of Cities . London : Earth Scan
6. Twigg, John . 2007 . Characteristics of A Disaster – Resilient Community : A Guidance Note .
DFID Disaster Risk Reduction Interagency Coordination Group