The TRANSCEND team went on a combined fieldwork trip to Mumbai and Jakarta and carried out the next steps of our empirical research in the two case study sites.
In Mumbai, the next step was to implement a household survey in flood-affected neighbourhoods across the Great Mumbai area. In collaboration with our local partner from the Centre for Geo Informatics, Jamsetji Tata School of Disaster Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), 11 students went to over 20 sites in Mumbai. They interviewed local residents about their experiences with flooding, adaptation needs, expectations and individual and collective activities to address flood risks.
Altogether we collected around 1300 completed questionnaires by the middle of June, just in time before the monsoon season starts in Mumbai, making it challenging to carry out such a survey. The first feedback from the local population was very good, as they see flood risks and responses as urgent matters and have many experiences to share, but also expectations towards government actors. We will now do thorough data analysis and present our findings as soon as possible through various channels.
After initiating the household survey in Mumbai, part of the team moved on to Jakarta, where we held a scenario workshop with our local partner, the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN). We had done a similar workshop in Mumbai last year, so we could build on the same methodology. We welcomed 21 participants from civil society, academia, and government agencies to the workshop and discussed with them the first draft of local extensions of the global Shared-Socio Economic Pathways (SSPs) framework. The workshop started with a general introduction to flood risks in Jakarta with perspectives from representatives of the different stakeholder groups invited. Then we explained and discussed the SSP framework and approach to downscaling it to the Jakarta context. Finally, three breakout groups discussed and commented on the draft scenario narratives. We were pleased with the engaged discussions and valuable insights provided by the participants.
After the scenario workshop, we also had the opportunity to meet with Prof Najib, Chairman of the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities (ISSH) at BRIN, to plan further joint activities. Moreover, we visited further areas of North Jakarta, where land reclamation and urban development projects are going on very fast. The next steps in the Jakarta cast study will be to revise the scenario narratives based on the workshop outcome and carry out a household survey with flood-affected communities across the rivers and at the coast.