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KN-JAKARTA, As Indonesia navigates a historic transition of its capital, high-level experts gathered virtually on Thursday evening, February 26, 2026, to discuss the diverging environmental destinies of Jakarta and the new capital, Nusantara (IKN).
The webinar, titled “A Tale of Two Cities: Environmental Governance in Jakarta and Nusantara,” was hosted and moderated by Ambassador Robert O. Blake Jr., USINDO Co-Chairman. The panel featured leading voices from the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), MIT, and Landscape Indonesia, alongside representatives from the Nusantara Capital Authority.
Ambassador Blake opened the discussion by highlighting the historical environmental degradation in Jakarta’s southern highlands, which has stripped the city of its natural water buffers.
Dr. Yus Budiyono, Senior Researcher at BRIN, presented a sobering look at Jakarta’s hydrological crisis. His research identified land subsidence as the single greatest driver of flood risk, far outweighing climate change in the immediate term.
Budiyono noted that Jakarta needs to manage only 9 to 12 specific “polders” (low-lying tracts of land enclosed by dikes) to mitigate 80% of its flood risk.
Infrastructure Effectiveness: While the Eastern Flood Canal has reduced hazards by 27%, modern challenges like trash-clogged waterways and a 2% effectiveness rate for early warning systems remain hurdles.
Budiyono updated the audience on the “Giant Sea Wall” project, noting that Phase A is slated for 2028, with the total cost for Northern Java’s protection estimated at a staggering $80–100 billion USD.
Nusantara: A Bold Experiment in Urban Order
Shifting the focus to the new capital, Dr. Andreas Sevtsuk of MIT described Nusantara as a “bold experiment” to impose spatial order in a country that has seen its urban population expand 14-fold since 1945.
Sevtsuk argued that while the core is master-planned, the government must plan for the “unplanned.” He proposed five sectors for consistent governance, emphasizing a one-by-one-kilometer street grid to prevent the congested “desakota” (village-city hybrid) patterns seen in Jakarta.
Dr. Agus Sari, CEO of Landscape Indonesia, contrasted the two cities through a “Zero-Waste” and “Renewable” lens:
Unlike Jakarta, which is surrounded by coal-fired plants, Nusantara aims for 100% renewable energy by 2045.
While 80% of Jakarta’s travel is via private vehicles, Nusantara flips this goal, aiming for 80% public transport usage.
Dr. Mia Amalia of the Nusantara Capital Authority provided a real-time update from the IKN command center. She confirmed that Nusantara is being built as a “Sponge City,” where water bodies are not decorative but functional climate buffers.
Over 70% of the area is dedicated green space, with 65% as protective forest. The layout ensures essential services and nature are reachable within 10 minutes by foot or bike.
Amalia noted that following the government core, development is now expanding into western and southern zones, focusing on solar farms and intelligent transport systems.
The panel concluded that while Jakarta requires massive, “hard” engineering interventions to survive its sinking geography, Nusantara offers a blank canvas to prove that 21st-century urbanization can be harmonious with nature. The goal, as Dr. Amalia put it, is to move beyond a “livable” city to a “lovable” one—a world-class growth center that respects its environmental capacity.
