Planning and Governance Challenges of Resource Efficiency Integration into Urban Housing Policy in Indonesian municipalities

Urban planning and governance can play a decisive role in creating resource efficient urban structures by implementing strategies and measures that directly influence the built environment. Many aspects of resource efficiency... [ view full abstract ]

Urban planning and governance can play a decisive role in creating resource efficient urban structures by implementing strategies and measures that directly influence the built environment. Many aspects of resource efficiency are already steered by urban planning and can be achieved by existing measures in various fields of urban service provision. Among these fields, housing is integral to providing a policy platform to link social, economy and environmental aspects embedded in the resource efficiency and the built environment. For Indonesian, policy curating urban housing is not the sole preserve of any one Government department and involves a multitude of sectors. Mainstreaming resource efficiency into housing policy requires coordination and reconciliation of policy across numerous different areas and priorities. While climate change adaptation and mitigation have become dominant in debates concerning housing policy, integration of resource efficiency is still limited.

Tapping the potential of integrating resource efficient design into the development of urban housing in Indonesia, this paper tries to identify patterns in which issues of resource efficiency are successfully integrated and which are not. Jakarta and Bandung are selected as case studies. An analysis of current housing policies allows us to estimate the commitment given to solving different problems related to resource efficiency. Interviews with policymakers have been made to analyse institutions and how integration of resource efficiency policies works. In particular, this paper discusses the existence of particular planning and governance variables, including institutional mechanisms, the status of the knowledge base and the divergence in policy design across municipalities. Patterns found between these variables are discussed for understanding the barriers to resource efficiency in urban housing.