Open Forum: A Tale of Two Cities: Environmental Governance in Jakarta and Nusantara on February 26, 2026
Open Forum
A Tale of Two Cities:
Environmental Governance in Jakarta and Nusantara
Thursday, February 26th
9:00 a.m. EST
9:00 p.m. WIB
Online via Zoom
Dr. Yus Budiyono
Senior Researcher,
National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN)
Dr. Andres Sevtsuk
Associate Professor of Urban Science and Planning,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Dr. Agus Sari
CEO, Landscape Indonesia
Moderated By:
Ambassador Robert O. Blake Jr., USINDO Co-Chairman
Indonesia's urban centers are among the most densely populated and rapidly growing on the planet. Jakarta has recently been rated by the U.N. as the world's most populous city, with 42 million inhabitants. Subject to unrelenting urbanization, Jakarta is expected to swell to over 50 million residents by 2050. Services have struggled to keep up with this influx, affecting the capital's livability. Rising sea levels, flooding, and sinking urban areas, along with worsening pollution and epic traffic, have raised questions about the long-term viability of this megacity.
As a result, the Jokowi administration launched the New Capital City project to move national administration to a less congested area. Named Nusantara, Indonesia’s new capital city is expected to address many of Jakarta's environmental problems by starting fresh in East Kalimantan with a blueprint for a green capital city. President Prabowo confirmed his commitment to Nusantara in January, ordering the relocation of thousands of civil servants and announcing plans to inaugurate Nusantara as Indonesia’s official capital in 2028. However, the $35 billion Nusantara project faces environmental challenges of its own.
This Open Forum will provide new insights into how Indonesia can effectively manage and improve the environmental governance of its major urban areas. It will provide expert analysis of efforts to mitigate mounting environmental challenges to Jakarta's livability and concerns about Nusantara's ecological impact, while providing fresh insights into urban design and management trends in Indonesia.
Are current efforts to address natural disasters, climate change, and hyper-urbanization in Jakarta enough to improve the long-term livability of this megacity? Alternatively, can the environmental impacts of shifting to Nusantara be adequately managed and lessen pressures on Jakarta? As there are no easy solutions, this Open Forum will assess Indonesia's environmental governance challenges and opportunities through a comparative discussion of urban development planning for its current and future capitals.
Dr. Yus Budiyono, Senior Researcher at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), will provide fresh insights into the major environmental challenges facing Jakarta, as well as the efficacy of current and planned mitigation measures to improve the livability of this megacity.
Dr. Andreas Sevtsuk, Associate Professor of Urban Science and Planning at MIT, will share insights from his research on making sustainable city environments and results of MIT's Indonesian City Planning Lab initiative, which integrated data-driven analytics with city planning and urban design.
Dr. Agus Sari, CEO of Landscape Indonesia, will share his perspectives on the green urban design of Nusantara and its current implementation in relation to landscape conservation, restoration, and environmental risk management for the new capital.
USINDO’s Co-Chairman, Robert Blake, will moderate this discussion and share his perspectives on Indonesia's environmental management in relation to its green energy transition plans.
Full Biography of Speakers:
Dr. Yus Budiyono is Senior Researcher at Indonesia's National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN). As the head of the Hydro-meteorological Disaster Research Group, his current focus is on key elements of hydro-meteorological disaster risk, including land subsidence, climate change, and socio-hydrology. He completed his master’s degree at The University of Melbourne's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and his PhD at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam's Institute for Environmental Studies.
Dr. Andreas Sevtsuk is a Charles and Ann Spaulding Associate Professor of Urban Science and Planning at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is head of the City Design and Development Group, and he leads the City Form Lab at MIT, including the Indonesia City Planning Lab initiative. Before joining MIT, Andres was an Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He holds a PhD from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning and an SMArchs in Architecture and Urbanism from MIT.
Dr. Agus Sari is Chief Executive Officer of Landscape Indonesia. He is concurrently also a Lecturer at the School of Business and Management, Bandung Institute of Technology. He has advised the Chair of the Nusantara Capital City Authority on environmental design. He was Chief Executive Officer of Yayasan Belantara, a $50 million fund to finance landscape conservation and restoration in Indonesia. He also served as the Deputy Chair of the Indonesian REDD+ Management Agency in charge of planning and financing. He received a PhD in Energy and Resources from the Rausser College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley.
The event will be held online via Zoom.
To register, please click here.
If you face any technical difficulties with the link above, you can also register by sending an email to ghattari@usindo.org.
The United States-Indonesia Society's mission is strengthening mutual understanding between the United States and Indonesia, enhancing the bilateral relationship, and deepening the U.S.-Indonesia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. We implement our mission through public discussions in each country and long-term bi-national programs in the education, legislative, and other sectors.
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