Flooding and land use change in Jambi Province, Sumatra: integrating local knowledge and scientific inquiry

Abstract

The rapid expansion of rubber and oil palm plantations in Jambi Province, Sumatra, Indonesia, is associated with largescale deforestation and the impairment of many ecosystem services. According to villagers' observations, this land use change has, together with climate change, led to an increase in the magnitude and frequency of river flood events, which constrain village and plantation development. Based on this empirical societal problem, we investigate whether we can find measurable indications for the presumed linkages between land use change, climate change, and changing flooding regimes. We follow an explorative, bottom-up research approach that builds on a review of multidisciplinary datasets, integrating local ecological knowledge with scientific measurements from soil science, climatology, hydrology, and remote sensing. We found that water levels of one of the largest rivers in Jambi Province, the Tembesi, have increased significantly during the last two decades. Data of local and regional meteorological stations show that alterations in rainfall patterns may only partly explain these changes. Rather, increased soil densities and decreased water infiltration rates in monoculture plantations suggest an increase in surface runoff following forest conversion. Moreover, additional interview data reveal that an increasing encroachment of wetlands in Jambi Province may contribute to changes in local flooding regimes, as the construction of drainage and flood control infrastructure redistributes floodwater at the local scale. We conclude that changing flooding regimes are the result of multiple interacting social-ecological processes associated with the expansion of rubber and oil palm plantations in Jambi Province. Although ecohydrological changes are likely to contribute to an increase of flood occurrence, their social impacts are increasingly mediated through flood control infrastructure on industrial oil palm plantations.

Oil palm and structural transformation of agriculture in Indonesia

“…In general, farmers will only decide to adopt a new crop if it leads to higher profits than traditional crops. However, besides changes in profit, the adoption of the new crop can also lead to changes in capital requirements, input use, labor use, and agroecological conditions (e.g., water and nutrient cycles) (e.g., Krishna et al., 2017a; Mariyono, 2015; Mariyono et al., 2010; Merten et al., 2020). All these changes can lead to a reallocation of household resources with implications for farming structures and employment (Figure 1).…”

Sumatra Land Surface Temperature Increase

“…In contrast to other regions, the LST increased in Riau & West Sumatra and Jambi & Bengkulu regions. These areas have experienced an increase in temperature due to extensive land-use changes [16]. Massive deforestation is also one of the factors causing the increase in temperature in this region [17].…”

The Ecological Insight of the Bunga’ Lalang Rice Farming Tradition in Luwu Society, South Sulawesi, Indonesia

“…Indigenous, local, and traditional ecological knowledge have been thoroughly explored because of the high level of experience-based ecological information that can be obtained (see for example Siahaya et al 2016;Takakura 2018;Markkula et al 2019). In addition, such ecological knowledge has been adapted to scientific enquiry and environmental sustainability (Weiner 2017;Merten et al 2020). Among the potential sources of ecological knowledge are tradition and ritual.…”