Disaster risk reduction using acceptable risk measures for spatial planning

Population growth and scarcity of prime land, combined with more frequent natural disasters, lead to higher vulnerability of people and infrastructures. To minimise future losses, the exposure to risks should be reduced. Spatial planning has an important role in disaster risk reduction, through better management and allocation of land. This paper presents a new method to incorporate disaster risk reduction in spatial planning, using acceptable risk measures. The method has been tested in the coastal city of Semarang, Indonesia, which is suffering from an on-going threat of enhanced land subsidence. Findings from the case study reveal the benefit of incorporating disaster risk reduction in spatial planning.