Climate adaptation, flood control, or climate resilience measures with evictions and displacement in Jakarta:

1. Meshkani (2024). Climate change and flooding: governmental responses to displacement and relocation in Jakarta’s informal neighborhoods International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment

This article directly analyzes Jakarta’s flood-mitigation and climate-adaptation policies in neighborhoods such as Bukit Duri and Kampung Melayu. It argues that relocation associated with flood-control infrastructure was implemented with insufficient community participation and produced environmental injustices.

Useful citation:

The study examines displacement resulting from demolition of informal settlements along riverbanks as part of climate-change adaptation and flood-mitigation strategies, and finds a lack of meaningful community engagement in relocation decisions.

2. UNRISD (2021), Transforming Adaptation Planning and Governance in Jakarta, Indonesia

This policy brief is particularly useful because it is framed explicitly as climate adaptation research. It notes that adaptation strategies often focus on creating more space for water, generating conflicts over urban space and leading to resettlement and, in some cases, forced removals. It also highlights livelihood losses associated with relocation.

Useful citation:

Urban flood adaptation in Jakarta frequently focuses on creating more space for water, which leads to contestation over land; residents often oppose resettlement because of livelihood impacts and may be forced to leave.

3. C40 Cities Case Study: Socially Inclusive Climate Adaptation for Urban Revitalization Project

This is a valuable source because it comes from a major climate-governance network rather than a critical NGO. It describes a climate-adaptation initiative that sought to relocate approximately 400,000 residents from riverbanks and reservoirs as part of flood-resilience planning.

Useful citation:

Jakarta’s climate-adaptation project aimed to relocate hundreds of thousands of residents from riverbanks and reservoir areas to reduce flood risk.

4. Dovey, Cook & Achmadi (2019), Contested Riverscapes in Jakarta: Flooding, Forced Eviction and Urban Image

Space and Polity

This article examines how flood-control objectives, eviction of informal settlements, and urban modernization agendas became intertwined. It is one of the most cited studies on the political dimensions of Jakarta’s riverbank clearances.

The authors investigate how desires to control flooding, remove informal settlements, and create a modern city intersected in Jakarta’s riverbank eviction campaigns.

5. New Mandala (2015)

Floods and Forced Evictions in Jakarta

Although not peer-reviewed, this article provides detailed contemporaneous documentation of the Kampung Pulo evictions, which authorities justified partly through river normalization and flood-management objectives.

6. Giant Sea Wall Critiques

The literature surrounding Jakarta’s coastal defense megaproject documents how climate-resilience and sea-level-rise adaptation were accompanied by clearance of kampung settlements, with critics arguing that poorer residents bore the social costs.

The strongest chain of evidence is:

Together, these sources support a carefully worded claim that climate adaptation and flood-risk reduction measures in Jakarta have at times been implemented through relocations and evictions that critics, researchers, and affected communities characterize as coercive or unjust, rather than simply voluntary adaptation.

How many people were evicted in Jakarta’s climate adaptation projects from 2005 to 2019?

There is no single official tally for all evictions associated with Jakarta’s climate adaptation, flood-control, and river-normalization projects between 2005 and 2019, because some datasets count households, others count families, and many evictions were justified through a mix of flood mitigation, infrastructure, and urban redevelopment objectives.

However, the best-documented figures suggest that the total number of people displaced was well into the tens of thousands, and likely exceeded 100,000 people over the period.

Key benchmarks:

A cautious estimate

For a report, I would avoid stating a precise figure unless you are using a specific dataset. A defensible formulation would be:

Between 2005 and 2019, Jakarta’s flood-control and climate-adaptation initiatives—including river normalization, canal construction, and related infrastructure projects—were associated with the eviction or relocation of tens of thousands of residents, with documented cases alone affecting well over 100,000 people across the broader period.

Important nuance

In documenting climate adaptation as a justification for eviction, the strongest evidence comes from the 2013–2019 river-normalization and flood-mitigation programs, especially along the Ciliwung River. Earlier evictions (2005–2012) were often justified through a broader mix of flood control, slum clearance, infrastructure, and urban modernization objectives. Researchers caution against treating all of these as purely climate-adaptation projects.

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