This study explores urbanization and flood events in the northern coast of Central Java with river basin as its unit of analysis. Two types of analysis were applied (i.e., spatial data and non-spatial data analysis) at four river basin areas in Central Java—Indonesia. The spatial analysis is focused on the assessment of LULC change in 2009–2018 based on Landsat Imagery. The non-spatial data (i.e., rural-urban classification and flood events) were overlaid with results of spatial data analyses. Our findings show that urbanization, as indicated by the growth rate of built-up areas, is very significant. Notable exposure to flood has taken place in the urban and potentially urban areas. The emerging discussion indicates that river basins possess dual spatial identity in the urban system (policy- and land-use-related). Proper land use planning and control is an essential instrument to safeguard urban areas (such as the case study area) and the entire island of Java in Indonesia. More attention should be put upon the river basin areas in designing eco-based approach to tackle the urban flood crises. In this case, the role of governance in flood management is crucial.

Indonesia, as an archipelagic nation, has about 150 million people (60%) living in coastal areas. Such communities are increasingly vulnerable to the effects of change, in the form of sea level rise and stronger, more intense storms. Population growth in coastal areas will also increase the disaster risk mainly because of climate change-related effects such as flooding, droughts, and tidal floods. This study examines the dynamic changes of urban population and urban villages in three decadal periods, from 1990, 2000, to 2010. To highlight different disasters that are increasingly tied to climate change, the analysis was conducted in the northern coastal area of Central Java province using village potential (PODES) data, which are routinely collected by the government. Results show that about 41% of people in Central Java province live in the northern coastal region and 50% live in urban areas. The numbers of hazard events within a distance range of 0–40 km from the shoreline are: flooding (non-tidal)—335; tidal flooding—65; and droughts—28. Based on this study, about half of flood disasters (non-tidal) occurred within 10 km of the shoreline, while tidal flooding accounted for 80%. Most of the climate-related disasters were found in rural areas at low levels of population growth, while in urban areas the disasters were found to be associated in less than 1% and in more than 3% of population growth.

Urbanization has brought rapid changes and transformations in many aspects of urban processes of many developing countries, including in spatial aspect, in the form of extended spatial formation of the cities into the surroundings, in order to meet the needs of economic and productive processes as well as those of social and consumption processes. Using the case of the growth of Surakarta Metropolitan, this paper aims to deepen understanding on the spatial process of urban population growth in the peripheries of secondary metropolitan that based on medium city size in Java, which is considered as one of the most densest populated in the world. The article will show the process of metropolitanization in Surakarta Metropolitan, in which influenced of its limitness of the administrative jurisdiction of the core area, the the growth extends into the surrounding areas. The analysis employs a time serial analysis by utilizing the national censuses population data from 1990 to 2010, The result shows that the urbanization process in Surakarta leads into a extended spatial form which also characterized by a fragmented phenomena. The spatial urban formation formed by such a process consist of a combination of some extensions of the previous urban areas and the formation of new urban centers that approached and merged one to each other in the long run. This process need to be understood as urbanization process is also a major contributors that shape the resource allocation and consumption of resources in the metropolitan and the surrounding areas. For Indonesia, the understanding of these processes will be very beneficial for the formulation of regional collaboration strategies in developing sustainable urbanization in the future.

In Central Java, in addition to the traditional view of urban transition as an aspect of urban industrialization, rural industrialization based on small- to medium-sized enterprises has become a concern, at least since the Indonesian economic crisis in 1997. Combinations of typical urban and rural activities have resulted in certain features of rural-urban transition as the urban population has continued to increase notably. The intention of this paper is to examine how rural-urban transition characterizes the industrialization of Central Java. Multivariate cluster analysis is applied to create a typology, with the district as the unit of analysis, to better understand the transition phenomenon in terms of the population and economic structure. The cluster solution shows that rural-urban transition occurs on at least two different paths. The first path could be described as industrialization from above, in which the transition takes place as a part of the urban growth process. The second path could be described as industrialization from below, in which rapid industrialization occurs far from the highest hierarchy of the urban center.

Representation of rapid urban growth followed by high rate of land conversion is clearly observed in the case of Semarang Metropolitan. Located in Java Island, this capital city has been performing as the largest urban area in the Central Java Province. This paper aims to examine urban growth pattern in Semarang Metropolitan by applying two main indicators, i.e., (1) additional built-up area 1972-2009 indicated as land conversion, and (2) population change between 1991-2008. Accordingly, distance is regard as an important parameter to further examine the emerging pattern based on the two indicators. Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) were used to analyze satellite images and built-up area development from the different periods. The analyses result show that suburbanization has been taken place in Semarang Metropolitan. The emerging pattern is very common in Asian cities as it is very much similar with the pattern in view selected cities in the neighboring countries (Jakarta, Bangkok, Metro Manila).