JAKARTA METROPOLITAN AREA, A PLANNED METROPOLITAN URBAN SPRAWL

BAYU WIRAWAN

JAKARTA METROPOLITAN AREA,

A PLANNED METROPOLITAN
URBAN SPRAWL
BAYU WIRAWAN

JAKARTA METROPOLITAN AREA (JMA) / JABODETABEK

Developed as a center of Dutch settlement four centuries ago, Jakarta nowadays
has flourished into the largest metropolitan area in South East Asia. Known lo-
cally as Jabodetabek, an acronym for the municipals that form the metropolitan
(Jakarta - Bogor - Depok - Tangerang - Bekasi), JMA has an area of 6,800 km2
(almost the size of Randstad in the Netherlands) and is inhabited by 32 million
people (World Bank, 2017). In the last half century, JMA experienced a drastic
population growth. Its population increased by 11 million people just between
year 2001-2017 (by comparison, Belgium has a total of 11,5 million people).
JMA is a multi-jurisdiction area that includes the Special Capital Region of
Jakarta (DKI Jakarta and furthermore mentioned as Jakarta City) as a special
city-province, two provinces and nine local government units at various levels.
The provinces are West Java and Banten. Cities and other government units in-
clude Jakarta City and other five cities (known locally as kota), namely Bogor,
Depok, Bekasi, Tangerang, and Tangerang Selatan; and three regencies (kabu-
paten) namely Bogor, Tangerang, and Bekasi. Based on this administrative and
spatial location, Cox (2011) divides JMA into three layers, they are the urban core,
the inner suburbs, and the outer suburbs/exurbs. The core layer is Jakarta City;
the inner suburbs consists of Bogor, Depok, Bekasi, Tangerang, and Tangerang
Selatan cities; and the outer suburbs/exurbs are the surrounding regencies.

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Figure 1: JMA by administrative jurisdiction (left); JMA by urban layer (right)

To understand why JMA experienced rapid urbanization, we need to know

the importance of JMA for Indonesia. First, JMA is the national capital and the
national political center of Indonesia, henceforth most of the national agencies
are in JMA. Next, JMA serves as the national economic center. Between the years
2012-2014, almost a quarter of Indonesia’s GDP came from businesses located
in JMA. It is reported that 85% of Indonesia financial decisions and around 60%
of national import and export activities happened in Jakarta (Government of In-
donesia, 2011). Last, JMA has abundant large infrastructure, such as the busiest
international airport (Soekarno Hatta International Airport), the biggest seaport
(Tanjung Priok Port), and the longest interconnecting toll road in single metro-
politan. It is the only metropolitan with an underground mass rapid transporta-
tion combined with urban commuter train line. It also has the biggest bus rapid
transportation networks, the largest industrial areas, and so forth. All these rea-
sons created a pull and push factor for JMA rapid urbanization.
Rapid Urbanization in JMA also shaped its spatial landscape. To accommodate
this rapid urbanization, Jakarta quickly expanded to provide homes and place of
work for the people. In the process, JMA experienced an urban sprawl situation de-
spite many attempts by Indonesian authority to manage its urban development.
This article attempts to show how and why attempts to manage urban devel-
opment failed in Jakarta and how those attempts became a driving factor for
more urban sprawl for JMA.

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PLANNING IN JAKARTA METROPOLITAN AREA

Attempts by authority to managed JMA development were embodied into several
spatial plans implemented by the state government. In general, planning regimes
in Indonesia are characterized into two eras. During the centralized prior to year
2000, the planning system was led by the state. In this era, local governments were
required to follow state direction as local autonomy was relatively restricted. The
next era began at the year 2000 and is known as the decentralized era. Preceded by
a 1999 financial crisis followed by a government crisis, state government reformed
its policy on local government and transitioned into a decentralized system. With
this new approach, state government recognizing more local participation, account-
ability, and local needs in spatial plans (Rukmana, 2015). These two types of state
planning also influenced JMA spatial planning in the last six decades.
The first spatial plan for JMA was coined in 1966 and known as Rentjana Region-
al Metropolitan Djakarta (Jakarta Metropolitan Regional Plan). This plan was de-
rived from the 1965’s Jakarta City Masterplan and assigned some areas around
Jakarta (specifically in the southern part) as new growth centers, connected with
a network of highways. The extent of this plan was based on watersheds in the
west and east of Jakarta City and mountain range in the south which expanded
Jakarta City up to a 65 kilometres radius (Silver, 2008). The concept was further
developed into the Policy Concept of Planning Framework for Jakarta Metropol-
itan Region which covers the areas of City of Jakarta, City of Bogor, Regency of
Bogor, Regency of Tangerang and Regency of Bekasi, thus named as Jabotabek
in 70s. Furthermore, this regional policy stipulated in a Presidential Instruction
in 1976, which made the plan official government policy.
The JMA plan was revised in 1983 with the Jabotabek Structure Plan, which
proposed the development of small towns as urban centers around Jakarta. JMA
was divided into two groups of areas. The inner ring area group consisted of
cities within a radius of 15-20 km around the center of Jakarta City and was es-
timated to include 75% of movements towards Jakarta City. The second group
was the outer ring area, which was residential centers, approximately 30-40 km
from downtown Jakarta and generating 25% of shuttle movements (Soegijoko,
2016). This plan never been officially recognized because the determination pro-
cess through the Presidential Regulation was never issued.
Rather than managing at the metropolitan level, state government focused on
managing local level development by created two Presidential Decrees, first about
spatial plan and development control for the Puncak Tourism Area and the Jakar-
ta-Bogor-Puncak-Cianjur Corridor (1983) and second about the Puncak Area Spa-
tial Plan (1985).

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Figure 2: JMA spatial plan in centralized era: 1966

(left); 1976 (middle); and 1983 (right)

With the issuance in the 1992 of Indonesia’s first spatial planning law, local
government (city and regency) were mandated to develop their own local spatial
plan with the added requirement that these plans insured environment protec-
tion. Despite each of five municipals (Jakarta, Bogor City, Bogor, Tangerang and
Bekasi) having their own spatial plans, pressure both from urban area expan-
sion and population migration, combined with the need for economic growth,
made this plan ineffective. In addition, during the 1990’s three new municipals
were established in JMA. Tangerang City was established in 1993 proliferated
from Tangerang Regency, then Bekasi City proliferated from the Bekasi Regency
in 1997, followed by Depok City proliferated from the Bogor Regency in 19991.
The official establishment of these cities indicates how urban expansion was
spilling over everywhere in Jakarta City.

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Urban expansion in the southern part of the metro area also created envi-
ronmental problem for Jakarta City. Despite having both the 1983 and 1985
Presidential Decree related to development control, frequent development on
the upstream area of Ciliwung Watershed (located in the Bogor and Tangerang
areas) resulted a series of impacts culminating in 1996 and 1997 as great floods
in Jakarta City. State government reacted to this situation by creating a develop-
ment strategy for southern Jakarta that included Tangerang, Bogor and Cianjur
Regency. This plan then stipulated into a Presidential Decree and was known as
the Bogor-Puncak-Cianjur (Bopuncur) Spatial Plan in 1999. The Bopuncur Spatial
plan focused on water and land protection in the Ciliwung Watershed upstream
areas and designated this area for very low-density development areas.
By 1999, Indonesia changed its government style into a decentralized system.
With decentralization, local government had more autonomy to arrange its land
use based on its own spatial plan. Between 2000-2005, all local governments de-
veloped new spatial plans, however they were fragmented and ignored a metro-
politan development concept.
Realized the fragmented nature of local plans, the state government then cre-
ated a metropolitan development guidance for JMA and the Cianjur Regency,
due its function as the upstream area. This metropolitan plan, later stipulated in
a Presidential Regulation in 2008, was known as the Jabodetabekpunjur Spatial
Plan. The plan was a modification of the 1983 Structure Plan that incorporated
recent JMA development. The main idea was to develop a new highway (called
Jakarta Outer Ring Road 2/JORR 2) access which connected ten urban growth
centers outside of Jakarta City. These new urban centers were expected to less-
en Jakarta City growth burden. The plan spatially designated JMA into protected
area (7.95%); buffer areas (1.12%); arable areas for built up, farm, production
forest areas (90.51%); and water body (0.42%).
Indonesia decentralized spatial planning approach was strengthened with the
2007 spatial management law. This new law again mandated that each munic-
ipal revise their local spatial plan. However, this new law also encouraged local
government to understand the on-going urban areas expansion phenomenon
and to take into consideration neighboring municipals spatial plan. Most of lo-
cal governments amended their spatial plan in 2013. One interesting point in
these new local spatial plans was the recognition of the need to allocate more
developable area in the spatial plan2. It also mandated that local plans consider
environment sustainability and the state government 2008 Jabodetabekpunjur
spatial plan.
The revised 2015 new plans reduced the number of urban growth centers

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Figure 3: JMA spatial plan in decentralized era:

2008 (left); 2015 (middle); and future (right)

and allocated new urban growth to centers of each municipal. Hence there are
eight urban growth centers outside Jakarta City in the new spatial plan. This new
spatial also added several new toll road roads that create new access including
the enhanced Bogor City toll road. These revised spatial plans have not been
stipulated yet, as there already is new discourse to added new layer of toll roads
in JMA (called by JORR 3).

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URBAN EXPANSIONS IN JMA

Despite all the spatial planning, unplanned urban expansion characterized JMA
growth in the last half century. A study by Arifien (2012) reports that until year
1972 urban built up areas only accounted for 153 kilometers square or 2.25% of
JMA areas. These developments were largely concentrated within 10 kilometers
of Jakarta City center and some areas around Bogor City Center. During the next
decade, Jakarta City expanded, especially towards to the southern area, and ex-
tended around 15 kilometers from Jakarta City Center. Bogor City also expanded
around 2 kilometers from the Bogor city center. At the same time frame, several
urban built areas emerged in Tangerang areas which then became the center
of Tangerang City. The completion of the Jakarta-Bogor toll road in 1978 and
the Jakarta-Sunda Straits toll road (which transversed through Tangerang) con-
nected these areas towards Jakarta City and became a pushed factor for urban
development.
Between 1983 and 1992 JMA started to experience significant urban area ex-
pansion. The JMA urban built up areas is expanded five-fold into 762 kilometers
square or 11.25% in 1992 (Arifien, 2012). In Jakarta City only, the need to accom-
modate doubled as the population rose from around 4.5 million into 7.3 million
between 1972-1992 (Winarso, et al, 2015). This population growth made almost
all part of Jakarta City a built-up area. A study by Armanto (2009) showed that by
1990 almost 80% Jakarta City was built up. Half of Bogor City also transformed
into built-up areas by 1992. Urban expansion spilling over from Jakarta City
largely affected some parts of currently Tangerang City in the west and Bekasi
City in the east. Large development on the eastern part of Jakarta happened due
to the completion of Jakarta-Cikampek toll road, which opened access to the
eastern part of Jakarta City towards Bekasi areas.
The period 1992 to 2005 marked the era of massive urban expansion in JMA.
Due to the scarce of land in Jakarta City, most of this new urban development
spilled over the surrounding municipals. Absent of sound development controls
(Rukmana, 2015) combined with private led property development (Winarso, et
al, 2015) and land banking by private developer increased land price in Jakarta
City (interview with former Head of Jakarta City Planning Agency, 2019) new de-
velopment sprawled outside Jakarta City. Almost all inner suburbs around Jakar-
ta, including Bogor City and the new established cities such as Tangerang City,
Bekasi City, Depok City and later Tangerang Selatan City (in 2008), became built-
up areas mostly to meet the housing needs of JMA. Massive urban expansion
also happened in exurbs area, especially on the location with access to the toll
road network. Many parts in Bogor, Bekasi and Tangerang Regency transformed

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Figure 4: Dynamics of JMA urban expansion

into built-up areas, mostly for industrial areas. This situation was continued and
35.6% of JMA (2,420 kilometres square) became built-up areas by the year of
2009 (Arifien, 2012). It is estimated that by 2030, almost 4,000 kilometres square
or more than half of JMA will become a built-up areas (URDI, 2019).

WHAT HAPPENED IN JMA

Sprawl in the JMA was the result of inconsistency in spatial plans, regional in-
frastructure development and massive migration to the Jakarta area. This situ-
ation has transformed the inner suburbs of JMA into massive continuous built
up areas.
Early state-led planning was able to introduce new places to accommodate JMA
growth. However, the private sector need to accommodate economic growth out-
stripped the ability of state efforts to controlled urban land use transformation.
Further the enactment of decentralized planning proved not to be the remedy for
sprawl. If anything, urban sprawl became worsened due to the fragmented local
spatial plan. The latest spatial plan only focused on designated new urban growth

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center and efforts to connect them with road networks. Discourse related to de-
velopment control was not well covered in the latest spatial plan. Henceforth the
spatial plan became more of the tool to accommodate growth and less concerned
as a tool to control growth, especially in the prone areas.
Expansion of the toll road network also exacerbated JMA urban sprawl. The
toll road network always had its special place in the spatial plan. Started in the
latest 70’s, toll road become the main backbone of urban mobility. We have
shown that urban sprawl began mostly in the areas with toll road access. JMA
needs to expand its toll networks but must combined them with better mobility
strategies to ward off urban sprawl.
JMA attractiveness as a center of most everything in Indonesia makes it as a
prime destination of national migration. In order to accommodate the result-
ing urbanization process, JMA needs to change its style of urban development.
Urban development in JMA (and Indonesia) relies heavily on conventional de-
velopment. The idea of compact urban areas development is relatively strange
especially in the mind of local government. Some areas already tried to make
use of compact development style however this only happened in the large pri-
vate-led development areas accommodating only the richest who can afford
this development. Meanwhile, compact development by the public sector is
mostly located in the fringe area that do not have a good mobility access.

CONCLUDING REMARKS
Sprawl in JMA is organically induced by its own spatial plan. The designation
of new urban center that have good toll road access, without restraining land
consumption, will encourage more continuous urban sprawl in JMA along with
its never-ending urbanization. This obesity needs to be stop through of a diet
of land. Some keys aspect to this diet can be achieved through cessation of
massive land expansion or prioritizing urban growth boundary in the spatial
planning process.

Endnotes
1 The establishment of Depok City in 1999 also changed the Jabotabek accronym into Jabodetabek.
2 Interview between the author and some local government officials in 2016 concluded that local government felt
that the 2008 Jabodetabekpunjur Spatial Plan were not enough to accommodate the need for municipals urban growth

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