Towards a More-than-Human Approach to Smart and Sustainable Urban Development: Designing for Multispecies Justice

The term ‘sustainability’ has become an overused umbrella term that encompasses a range of climate actions and environmental infrastructure investments; however, there is still an urgent need for transformative reform work. Scholars of urban studies have made compelling cases for a more-than-human conceptualisation of urban and environmental planning and also share a common interest in translating theory into practical approaches and implications that recognise (i) our ecological entanglements with planetary systems and (ii) the urgent need for multispecies justice in the reconceptualisation of genuinely sustainable cities. More-than-human sensibility draws on a range of disciplines and encompasses conventional and non-conventional research methods and design approaches. In this article, we offer a horizon scan type of review of key posthuman and more-than-human literature sources at the intersection of urban studies and environmental humanities. The aim of this review is to (i) contribute to the emerging discourse that is starting to operationalise a more-than-human approach to smart and sustainable urban development, and; (ii) to articulate a nascent framework for more-than-human spatial planning policy and practice.

Collective space on residential as a resilience measure to disaster mitigation earthquakes and liquefaction

Disasters have just hit Palu, Sigi, and Donggala, resulting in the fall of so many victims, not only humans but also city and village physicals (residential buildings, facilities, and infrastructure). Several villages hit by the disaster were hamlet 3 Vou, Langaleso village, Dolo sub-district, Jono Oge village, Biromaru sub-district, and Sigi district. The village’s condition was damaged, but most of the buildings and plants were lost to the mud. Settlement neighborhoods that should be full of activity are nowhere to be seen, and people become apathetic. They just accept this situation and are always waiting for help. Huntara, a form of assistance provided by funders, temporarily occupy the settlers’ land because the condition of the land or land needs to be cleared for the rebuilding process. The provision of inclusive spaces is one of the efforts to mitigate disasters in residential areas, namely public spaces that can be used by all settlers. These spaces must be safe and provide comfort, easy to reach, and become part of the residential environment. Village arrangement is one way that can be done to minimize the impact of a disaster. Arrangement of buildings, facilities, and environmental infrastructure are necessary not to create chaos in development. Also, aspects of environmentally friendly residential (village) spatial patterns, structural systems, and building construction that meet the requirements (SNI), the application of local and humane wisdom are no less important to consider in the process of procuring inclusive spaces in settlements, structuring villages, especially after a disaster.

Contribution of Community Resilience to City’s Livability within the Framework of Sustainable Development

Lessons learned from the crisis in Indonesia prove that the concept of community resilience, together with community-based development, significantly affects the ability to fight against the crisis at the local and community levels. In addition to improving urban livability, today’s urban development in Indonesia must also struggle to overcome various pressures due to natural disasters. Community resilience is considered a bottom-up solution to address these problems. This study aims to see how community resilience affects settlements’ livability in Malang City, one of Indonesia’s medium-sized cities. This research also analyses the relationship between resilience and livability variables to formulate prescriptive development strategies. The research used quantitative analysis by compiling and selecting data from secondary and primary sources to formulate indicators and variables of the proposed model. Descriptive analysis and structural equation modelling were conducted using SEM-PLS. The model built from this research shows that community resilience is the main factor that shapes livability in Malang City, indicated by social life, urban environment, and economy. Important variables forming community resilience are population vulnerability, physical infrastructure, and environmental infrastructure.

The Correlation of Settlement Preferences and Community Resilience Post-Disaster in Palu City

In 2018, Palu City was affected by massive disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, and liquefaction) which paralyzed various activities and resulted in losses of around Rp. 7.6 trillion. The government compiled a disaster-prone zone map (ZRB) that showed 96.03% of Palu City was classified as disaster-prone. It does not only impact the community’s perception of disaster risk, but also on settlement preferences (moving, hesitant to move, and not moving). This condition will affect the community resilience level against disasters. This study aims to determine the correlation between settlement preferences and community resilience, and determine the level of post-disaster community resilience in each sub-district of Palu City. This study’s analysis was done by using SEM-PLS. The variables used are social, economic, environmental, infrastructure, culture, government, and settlement preferences. The results show that all variables have significant impacts. The highest correlation came from the settlement preferences. High community resilience is found in Mantikulore and East Palu sub-districts, moderate community resilience is found in South Palu and West Palu sub-districts, while low community resilience is found in Tawaeli, North Palu, Ulujadi, and Tatanga sub-districts. The results of this study can be used as recommendation for the government to increase community resilience in Palu City.

Book Review: Scorched Earth: Environmental Warfare as a Crime Against Humanity and Nature

The subtitle of Emmanuel Kreike’s Scorched Earth foreshadows the goal of this impressive and comprehensive contribution to the field. His goal is to chip away at the Nature-Culture dichotomy that he argues drives, and limits, much of the analysis that is produced of historical, and modern, warfare. Kreike uses the concept of environcide, which he defines as “intentionally or unintentionally damaging, destroying, or rendering inaccessible environmental infrastructure”, and argues that the traditional assumptions about nature and culture in the study of warfare obscure the importance of the natural world in determining who lives and who dies. For the field of genocide studies, Kreike’s work promotes the analysis of mass violence and potentially genocidal conflicts by looking not simply at actions taken by perpetrators directly against victims, but also at a litany of actions that perpetrators might take that could reasonably result in mass death, joining those in the field who promote a shift in the definition of genocide that includes actions that do not simply meet the definition of dolus specialis to also those that demonstrate dolus eventualis. While confiscating food and burning fields may not fit our current understanding of genocidal acts, they can certainly have the same eventual outcome as the use of machine guns and poison gas. And, recent scholars of risk factors do note the importance of “crises, resource scarcity, population pressure, natural disasters” as increasing the likelihood of genocide.

Distributed Algorithms for Multiple Path Backbone Discovery in Thick Linear Sensor Networks

Continued advancements in microprocessors, electronics, and communication technology have led to the design and development of sensing devices with increased functionalities, smaller sizes, larger processing, storage, and communication capabilities, and decreased cost. A large number of these sensor nodes are used in many environmental, infrastructure, commercial, and military monitoring applications. Due to the linearity of a good number of the monitored structures such as oil, gas, and water pipelines, borders, rivers, and roads, the wireless sensor networks (WSNs) that are used to monitor them have a linear topology. This type of WSN is called a linear sensor network (LSN). In this paper, two distributed algorithms for topology discovery in thick LSNs are presented: the linear backbone discovery algorithm (LBD) and the linear backbone discovery algorithm with x backbone paths (LBDx). Both of them try to construct a linear backbone for efficient routing in LSNs. However, the LBD algorithm has the objective of minimizing the number of messages used during the backbone discovery process. On the other hand, the LBDx algorithm focuses on reducing the number of hops of the data messages transmitted from the nodes to the sink. LBD and LBDx exhibit good properties and efficient performance, which are confirmed by extensive simulations.

FEASIBILITY STUDY OF XIV HIU PUTIH HOUSING, PALANGKA RAYA CITY BASED ON PERMENPERA No 22/PERMEN/M/2008

This study aims to assess the feasibility of housing type 36 which was built by PT. Toraa Graha Utama at the Perumahan Hiu Putih XIV Palangka Raya City, Central Kalimantan based on Permenpera Nomor 22/Permen/M/2008. The study refers to livable houses that apply a healthy and safe environment supported by public infrastructure, facilities and utilities regulated by technical guidelines for minimum service standards in the district/city housing sector. This study uses a descriptive qualitative method and uses analysis. The research instruments were in the form of questionnaires and interviews with informants. There are 30 house samples. Based on the results of the study, it is known that the Perumahan Hiu Putih XIV has implemented the provisions for livable houses, and meets the building safety requirements, minimum adequacy of building area and the health of its occupants, and has also implemented environmental criteria equipped with environmental infrastructure, and public facilities. The results of calculations from respondents' answers conducted at the time of the interview obtained 88% of the total achievement of livable houses and a healthy and safe environment supported by infrastructure, facilities and public utilities.