Search Results (38)

Land subsidence significantly threatens vulnerable coastal environments. This study aims to explore how Semarang’s government, local communities, and researchers address land subsidence and its role in exacerbating flood risk, against the backdrop of ongoing efforts within flood risk governance. Employing an integrated mixed-methods approach, the research combined quantitative geospatial analysis (InSAR and land cover change detection) with qualitative socio-political and governance analysis (interviews, FGDs, field observations). Findings show high subsidence rates in Semarang. Line of sight displacement measurements revealed a continuous downward trend from late 2014 to mid-2023, with rates varying from −8.8 to −10.1 cm/year in Karangroto and Sembungharjo. Built-up areas concurrently expanded from 21,512 hectares in 2017 to 23,755 hectares in 2023, largely displacing cropland and tree cover. Groundwater extraction was identified as the dominant driver, alongside urbanization and geological factors. A critical disconnect emerged: community views focused on flooding, often overlooking subsidence’s fundamental role as an exacerbating factor. The study concluded that multi-level collaboration, improved risk communication, and sustainable land management are critical for enhancing urban coastal resilience against dual threats of subsidence and flooding. These insights offer guidance for similar rapidly developing coastal cities. Full article

The major challenge facing big cities in developing nations is allocating residential land to the urban poor, given the constraints on land availability. This article investigates how and why the management of Waqf land, a particular type of land tenure in urban informal settlements, transforms. The analysis draws on principles of responsible land management and focuses on the specific case of Waqf land owned by the Kauman Grand Mosque in Semarang City, Indonesia. With a questionnaire distributed among tenants of the Waqf land, it was possible to retrieve data on experiences with the management of the Waqf land. The questionnaire and subsequent analysis used a scoring sheet based on the 8R framework of responsible land management. The findings indicate that the management of Waqf land in the study area changed and improved over time, evolving from an informal to a more formal structure. The responses additionally demonstrate a gradual transformation whereby, gradually, nearly all aspects of the 8R framework of responsible land management are considered positively. Nevertheless, the aspects of reflexivity and retraceability still score low, as access to documentation is still limited, and evaluations of how effective the management of land is are infrequent. The study concludes that despite being an unconventional form of land management, the Waqf land tenure regime appears to secure informal types of urban tenure, especially in areas with limited land availability. Moreover, the Waqf land institution supports strong and cooperative relationships within the community. Full article

This study investigates the relationships between surface deformations and groundwater management in the Metropolitan Region of Guatemala (MRG), a geologically complex area subjected to different types of ground deformation, integrating five municipalities around Guatemala City. Deformation patterns were characterized through Multi-Temporal Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (MT-InSAR) and compared with groundwater piezometric data. The MT-InSAR technique allowed the identification of the main deformation areas in the MRG. Previously reported maximum subsidence rates ranged from −60 mm/year to −20 mm/year, with local maxima fitting with the extraction well fields of Villanueva and Petapa, in the South basin. Subsidence bowl or depression cone deformation areas were identified and located, similar to those described in the literature for other urban areas, such as Jakarta, Semarang, and Mexico City, among others. This study contextualizes these findings within the detailed hydrogeological framework of the region, highlighting the long-standing generalized exploitation of groundwater resources for urban, agricultural, and industrial uses. Historical data on water wells, piezometric levels, and groundwater flow patterns indicate that groundwater extraction has surpassed the natural recharge rates, particularly in the southern and eastern hydrological basins in the study area. This research identifies a critical need for sustainable water management, emphasizing the importance of integrating MT-InSAR into groundwater monitoring schemes. Full article

This research focused on the narrative relating to the learning process of secondary students, especially those who are less affluent. The scope of this narrative deals with the possible roles and benefits of indirect feedback to enhance secondary students’ learning. Thus, the research aimed to examine the impacts of their past experiences with indirect feedback (in interactions with people outside school), attitude, and social expectation on secondary students’ paradigm and mindset. The survey was based on the Double-loop Learning concept and Theory of Planned Behavior. A total of 1473 students from eight secondary schools located in the central Java region (Indonesia) participated in the survey. Based on the findings, two factors (i.e., attitude and indirect feedback) significantly influenced students’ paradigm and mindset on learning. Key implications to help sustain learning for secondary students include the continuous importance of an effective student–teacher relationship and the potential integration of indirect feedback from people outside school. In other words, the research suggests more classroom openness for indirect feedback when enhancing secondary students’ learning process. Finally, the limitations and future studies are discussed. Full article

Java Island, located in Indonesia, is the country’s main island, with a population of 150 million, more than half the population of the country. There are at least four big cities located on the island that have seen fast development in the last 30 years. The land subsidence (LS) issue caused by groundwater overexploitation, compaction, and geological setting, has been known on the island for more than 20 years. However, past studies have mostly focused on one particular important area, while the big picture of LS on the whole island is often overlooked. This study utilized Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data from 2017 to 2023, analyzed using Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) interferometry, to map LS across Java Island. We used DEMNAS to eliminate the topographic signal. We found ten regions with a noticeable LS rate, affecting nearly 60 million people who reside in the LS zones, namely, Serang, Greater Jakarta, Cianjur, Bandung, Cirebon, Brebes and Tegal, Pekalongan, Greater Semarang, Surabaya, and Sidoardjo. The highest rates and the large coverage of LS were observed in Greater Jakarta (up to 150 mm/year), Bandung (200 mm/year), Semarang (160 mm/year), and Pekalongan (up to 110 mm/year). LS was also detected in smaller areas or districts, such as Serang, Cianjur, Cirebon, Brebes, Tegal, Surabaya, and Sidoarjo, with rates ranging from 60 to 140 mm/year. The two areas of Cianjur and Brebes, which have never been mentioned in previous studies, show LS rates of about 80 mm/year and 70 mm/year, respectively. The LS rate in all areas was shown to be linear over time, except in Pekalongan, which shows rate deflation after 2021. We also found that most affected regions are urban and industrial zones, indicating a strong correlation with anthropogenic activities. LS leads to widespread socioeconomic and environmental impacts, including damage to infrastructure, increased flooding, and reduced groundwater capacity. Full article

The classification of sparse text, common in short or specialized content, is challenging for natural language processing. These challenges stem from high-dimensional data and scarce relevant features because sparse text can result from noisy, short, or contextually limited inputs. This paper reviews approaches for handling semantic relationships in sparse text classification. Approaches like FastText and Latent Dirichlet Allocation are discussed for addressing feature sparsity while maintaining semantic integrity. Embedding techniques, such as Word2Vec and BERT, are crucial for capturing contextual meanings and improving accuracy. Recent advances include hybrid models that combine deep learning and traditional methods for better performance. These approaches work across various datasets, including social media and scientific publications. Finally, progress in using semantic relationships for sparse text classification is reviewed, and open challenges and future research directions are identified to better integrate semantic understanding in sparse text classification. Full article

This study explores the dynamics of urban green spaces in five major Indonesian cities—Central Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, and Semarang—using Sentinel-2 satellite imagery and vegetation indices, such as NDVI and EVI. As major urban areas expand and become more densely populated, development activities have significantly altered urban green spaces, necessitating comprehensive mapping through remote sensing technologies. The findings reveal significant variability in green space coverage among the cities over three periods (2019–2020, 2021–2022, 2023–2024), ensuring that the findings are comprehensive and up to date. This study demonstrates the utility of remote sensing for detailed urban analysis, emphasizing its effectiveness in identifying, quantifying, and monitoring changes in green spaces. Integrating advanced techniques, such as NDVI and EVI, offers a nuanced understanding of urban vegetation dynamics and their implications for sustainable urban planning. Utilizing Sentinel-2 data within the Google Earth Engine (GEE) framework represents a contemporary and innovative approach to urban studies, particularly in rapidly urbanizing environments. The novelty of this research lies in its method of preserving and enhancing green infrastructure while supporting the development of effective strategies for sustainable urban growth. Full article

The North Java coastal area, known as the Pantura region, is experiencing significant land subsidence, with certain areas sinking up to 10 cm per year. Pekalongan is among the most affected, with subsidence rates between 10 and 19 cm annually, mainly due to groundwater extraction, sediment compaction, and coastal erosion. Other coastal cities, like Semarang and Demak, show rates averaging 4 to 10 cm per year. This rapid subsidence is due to favorable geological conditions and ongoing urban development. This study investigates land subsidence in Pekalongan using the PS-InSAR method and dynamic visualization of time-series land cover data. PS-InSAR was applied to 45 scenes from ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 to monitor subsidence from 2014 to 2022. The results were validated with in situ subsidence benchmarks. Urban development dynamics were analyzed through land cover and land use change (LULC) and population density over the same period, using the GLC_FCS30D dataset in the GEE to detect non-natural LULC. The PS-InSAR results indicated that over 60.9% of investigation points experienced subsidence, up to 100 cm between 2014 and 2022. Ground validation showed an 83% agreement with PS-InSAR results. A statistical analysis of LULC from 2014 to 2022 did not show significant built-up area development, but the extension of salt marshes and water bodies indicated subsidence expansion. The population density reached 6873 people per square km by 2022, causing extensive groundwater use for domestic and industrial purposes, further aggravating the subsidence. Full article

Although piped water is a safely managed water source, many people prefer drinking packaged/bottled water, which undermines environmental sustainability by creating waste plastics. Thus, to encourage drinking tap water, this study aimed to identify and fill the discrepancy between consumers’ perception of and the actual quality of the municipal water supply in Indonesia. Through questionnaire surveys in three cities, i.e., Malang, Bogor, and Semarang cities, we found that the majority of the residents, namely, 82%, 58%, and 66%, respectively, drank packaged water. Although the piped water supply from Perusahaan Daerah Air Minum (PDAM) has a good appearance, color, taste, and water quality, sporadic microbial contamination was detected due to the depletion of residual chlorine. However, packaged water was also contaminated by indicator bacteria owing to storage methods. There was a notable discrepancy between the residents’ perceptions of tap water safety and their choices of drinking water sources. The residents perceived spring water as a clean source, which influenced their selection of water sources more than the costs of water. Public drinking stations installed by PDAM helped to win consumers’ trust in PDAM water, indicating that installing more public drinking stations will encourage more people to drink piped water. Full article

Although evidence-based nutrition care is recommended for patients with cancer, current nutrition care practices provided by nutritionists and dietitians in Southeast Asian countries are not clearly reported. The aim of this scoping review was to describe nutritionists’ and dietitians’ current oncology nutrition care practice within Southeast Asia by identifying access to dietetic services, tools or strategies used in providing care, and barriers and enablers to implementing nutrition care practices. Five databases (Ovid MEDLINE, Global Health, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Proquest) were searched through structured search strategies, in addition to strategic searching of grey literature. A total of 4261 sources of evidence were retrieved. After full-text screening, 18 studies from Southeast Asian countries met the inclusion criteria and were included in this review. The provision and reporting of nutrition care practices provided by nutritionists and dietitians were limited. Access to dietetic services, including nutritional screening tools and reason to be referred, were varied within studies. Barriers and enablers to nutrition care provision were unique and related to each country’s specific resources and guidelines. In summary, there was varied reporting of nutrition care practices provided to patients with cancer in Southeast Asia and a lack of clarity on the actual standardized processes. Future research is warranted to further explore the barriers and enablers to providing nutrition care by local nutritionists and dietitians in Southeast Asia. Full article

Unfortunately, flooding is a major worldwide problem that especially affects low-lying cities like Semarang, Indonesia. Therefore, this study focuses on the flood-prone areas of Semarang, where recurring high tides and surges from severe precipitation cause havoc. In order to create water-resistant dwelling topologies, the paper explores the early incorporation of computational design approaches. Ultimately, the objective is to explore the strategic application of generative design techniques to support the development of a highly adaptive urban environment using optimization-based data-driven design approaches. With careful consideration, advanced computational methods were used to find concepts that may manage and lessen possible consequences in an efficient manner, increasing the urban landscape’s overall flexibility. Achieving the best possible solutions, which consider issues like feasibility, sustainability, durability, adaptability, and user comfort, requires the application of computational studies such as microclimatic, rainfall, energy performance, and fluid simulations. Consequently, promising advances in water retention and trajectory control features are shown by evaluations that concentrate on wind dynamics and energy considerations. One such example is GEN_8, the most optimal typology produced by additive massing approaches. In addition to showing less water retention than usual building typologies, GEN_8 optimizes energy performance to improve user experience overall. Accordingly, the computationally created geometry GEN_8’s shaded areas and facades effectively account for between 191.4 and 957 kWh/m² of yearly solar radiation. In contrast, average building typologies show higher amounts of annual solar radiation, with a minimum of 574.32 kWh/m² and a maximum of 1148.65 kWh/m². This paper’s comprehensive approach not only addresses worldwide issues but also highlights how computational design techniques may be used to construct, assess, and validate workable solutions for flood-prone locations within a flexible framework that has been painstakingly designed. As a result, the research also highlights the significance of technological advancements and computational tools in assessing, producing, and validating workable solutions for flood-prone locations by carefully curating a flexible framework that ensures efficiency, comfort, and design optimization. Full article

The idea of strong and weak adjacencies between vertices has been generalized into fuzzy graphs and intuitionistic fuzzy graphs (IFGs), and it is an important part of making decisions. However, one or two membership degrees are not always sufficient for making decisions on real-world problems that need an answer of types “yes, neutral, and no”. Consequently, in previous work, we generalized the concept into picture fuzzy graphs (PFGs) where each element in the PFG has membership, neutral, and non-membership degrees. Moreover, we constructed the notion of the coloring of PFGs based on strong and weak adjacencies between vertices. In this paper, we investigate some properties of the chromatic number of PFGs based on the concept of strong and weak adjacencies between vertices. According to these properties, we construct an algorithm to find the chromatic number of PFGs. The algorithm is useful when we work with large PFGs. Further, we improve the method to implement the PFG’s coloring for determining traffic signal phasing at an intersection. A case study has also been carried to evaluate the method. Full article

Hazardous waste may be an environmental and public health threat if not managed properly and may contribute to a regional multi-hazard when other natural disasters also exist. Hazardous and toxic waste may cause industrial disaster if its risks are not well identified and mitigated. This study aims to model the city/district-based risk assessment for each type of hazardous waste in Central Java Province for anticipating hazardous waste disasters and necessary responses. The concept of disaster is used as the method in this study, consisting of hazard, vulnerability, and capacity. The results showed that the generation of hazardous waste in Central Java Province was very large, amounting to 2,886,974.024 tons in 2021. The hazardous waste produced was sourced from 1233 types of businesses/activities in Central Java Province, with 4042 types of hazardous waste. The healthcare sector is identified as the sector that produces the most hazardous waste. Overall, the risk levels of the majority of hazardous waste types fall into the low category. Full article

Oral delivery has become the route of choice among all other types of drug administrations. However, typical chronic disease drugs are often poorly water-soluble, have low dissolution rates, and undergo first-pass metabolism, ultimately leading to low bioavailability and lack of efficacy. The lipid-based formulation offers tremendous benefits of using versatile excipients and has great compatibility with all types of dosage forms. Self-microemulsifying drug delivery system (SMEDDS) promotes drug self-emulsification in a combination of oil, surfactant, and co-surfactant, thereby facilitating better drug solubility and absorption. The feasible preparation of SMEDDS creates a promising strategy to improve the drawbacks of lipophilic drugs administered orally. Selecting a decent mixing among these components is, therefore, of importance for successful SMEDDS. Quality by Design (QbD) brings a systematic approach to drug development, and it offers promise to significantly improve the manufacturing quality performance of SMEDDS. Furthermore, it could be benefited efficiently by conducting pre-formulation studies integrated with the statistical design of experiment (DoE). In this review, we highlight the recent findings for the development of microemulsions and SMEDDS by using DoE methods to optimize the formulations for drugs in different excipients with controllable ratios. A brief overview of DoE concepts is discussed, along with its technical benefits in improving SMEDDS formulations. Full article

If it is not adequately managed, the waste from healthcare facilities containing infectious material poses a risk to the general public and the natural environment. As a result, hospitals must ensure that their waste management policies do not add to the dangers posed to both human health and the environment. In this study, we aimed to determine the effect that varying doses of disinfectant in conjunction with andosol soil had on the total number of bacteria present in the medical waste generated by three hospitals in Semarang City, Indonesia. According to the findings of the study, the most efficient method for decreasing the overall number of microbial colonies by 93% was a combination involving soil (at a percentage of 30) and chlorine (at a concentration of 0.75 ppm). As a consequence of this, and due to the limited technology available, this straightforward method can become an alternative for the healthcare industry in managing medical waste before dumping or incinerating it. Hospitals have been advised to discontinue the practice of directly burning, disinfecting, or transporting waste to disposal locations before it receives treatment. This can help reduce the risk of pandemics, as the correct disposal of medical waste can control infection sources. Full article