Communicating Flooding

Everyday communication is a foundation of social life. Yet the social life and social effects of everyday communication is often overlooked in the implementation of solutions to everyday problems.

Rain-induced flooding, and flooding caused by tsunamis and rising sea levels are well-known and frequently communicated problems. A less well-known problem is tidal flooding, which is often exacerbated by sea level rise and extreme weather events. In Indonesia alone, tidal flooding is predicted to impact the land, homes and livelihoods of between four to twenty three million Indonesians in the coming decades.

The Communicating Flooding project addresses question of how flooding is communicated to a diverse range of stakeholders and to what effect. Using discourse analysis, ethnography, and archival analysis our work focuses on administrative, political, and local communications about the causes and effects of flooding, as well as the adaptation strategies used by those impacted. Our researchers come from across the humanities and social sciences, as well as population health, and urban planning. Our goal is to:

•   explore how communications about flooding contribute to both inaction and action by various stakeholders
•   understand how such actions are underpinned by power and unequal social relations
•   and to help build capacity to create change for those most impacted by flooding

Our key activities include:

•   supporting researchers and research projects that build the foundation for ongoing collaborative problem solving
•   fostering research that is engaged with industry, policy-makers, and the public
•   creating educational materials

The Communicating Flooding project is currently a network of linguistic anthropologists at the University of Queensland and BINUS University in Jakarta who focus on tidal flooding in Indonesia and tsunamis in Japan. Linguistic anthropology seeks to understand the how and whys of communication from the participants' perspective using observation, participation, recording of daily interactions, and interviews. Participation is an essential ethical element that not only enables the researcher to understand the problem and solutions from the perspective of those impacted, but it also enables the incorporation of approaches to participatory action research that involve those impacted as co-researchers, while affording them agency in decision-making processes linked with any type of mitigation practices. We also collaborate and seek to collaborate on communicating about flooding in other regions, as well as with scholars from other faculties and other universities.

Bureaucracies mediatizing tidal flooding

With a grant from the School of Languages and Cultures, Goebel and Dewi are currently investigating how provincial and regency level governments communicate about tidal flooding to their imagined publics and which voices are heard or erased. Our data is web communiques published by the Central Java provincial government and the Kendal regency government.

The visual politics of walls in the aftermath of Japan’s 2011 tsunami

With a grant from the School of Languages and Cultures, Chapman is currently investigating the construction of sea walls and community responses to them. His data includes visual images of different infrastructural preparations for the next tsunami and the multiple and contested discourses about these preparations that have emerged within a number of Japan’s coastal communities.

Local voices: mediatized interviews with those impacted by tidal flooding

Dewi and Goebel are currently investigating who is interviewed and what topics are covered in mediatized interviews about tidal flooding in Kendal and other areas on Java’s northern coastline. Our data are interviews found in documentaries and news broadcasts which are typically re-mediatized on YouTube.

Indonesian farmers voicing aspirations regarding water management policies in Kendal

Mr. Lukman Hakim (Lukman) has a masters in applied linguistics from the University of Queensland. He has won a DFAT-funded Australia Award for his PhD starting in 2025. Lukman will use linguistic anthropology to study how farmers in the Kendal regency communicate about their adaptations to daily tidal flooding.

Understanding and improving health communication and public health interventions for rob flooding in coastal Java

Ms. Sri Indra Kurnia (Iin) is a lecturer at the Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Science, Universitas Muhammadiyah, Surakarta, Indonesia. She has a masters in Public Health from the University of Queensland and is now planning to do a PhD on health communication at the University of Queensland. Upon receiving a PhD scholarship, Iin plans to use linguistic anthropology to investigate how local health providers and community members communicate about health issues related to rob (tidal) flooding in coastal Java and seek strategies to improve this communication to enhance public health outcomes. Without this understanding, building evidence-based public health interventions tailored to these communities is significantly hindered.

Voices of resilience: exploring linguistic practices and cultural adaptations in the Santri community's response to tidal flooding in Kendal, Indonesia

Mr. Mohammad Lukman (Lukman, yes there are two Lukmans) is a lecturer in the department of Arabic Literature, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia. He has a masters in Middle Eastern Studies from Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. Upon receiving a PhD scholarship, Lukman will use linguistic anthropology to explore the nexus between linguistic practices, cultural frameworks, and adaptive responses amidst the escalating threat of tidal flooding in a coastal community in Kendal regency. This study pioneers an investigation within the pious Muslim (Santri) community in Kendal, known for its solid Islamic teachings and cultural heritage. It aims to understand how cultural interpretations are embedded within linguistic practices during tidal flooding events.

The Communicating Flooding project is committed to engaging with multiple stakeholders while developing educational material, especially material for the teaching of Indonesian in Australian universities. We are currently carrying out a project “Flooding Youth Futures” funded by the Australia Indonesia Institute which is itself part of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Flooding youth futures: Australian and Indonesian climate change adaptation stories

Among many others, Howard Manns and colleagues identify a lack of freely available contemporary youth-centred language curriculum as one problem for Australian tertiary Indonesian language programs (see also Hill). This project creates such material with the generous support of grants from the Australia Indonesia Institute (DFAT, grant number AII00037) and the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Queensland. The materials are created through a collaboration between Australian and Indonesian academics (Zane Goebel, Udiana Dewi, Delfina Chrisyandra, and Oktolita Elsanadia), students (Sakura Savelieva, Raihan Yates, Melinda Cahyadi Wanto, and Muhammad Jawad Yuwono), and urban youth.

Focus is on youths’ experiences of adaptation to flooding events because the research base, media reporting, and government accounts typically exclude youth stories of their everyday adaptation strategies and experience of these increasingly frequent disasters. To address this lack of voice, this project uses a collaborative approach that will enable youth to audio-visually record their stories about rain-induced flooding in Brisbane and tidal-induced flooding in Kendal and have them heard via the creation of a YouTube channel hosting them, seminars, social media, and curriculum materials. All audio-visual material will be in Indonesian (with English subtitles) or in English (with Indonesian subtitles).

These freely downloadable materials are designed for third year advanced university students of Indonesian. With your feedback and support we hope to increase the range of materials to cover more topics at this level. The design of this material has been informed by our reading of work on language learning (e.g., Lightbown, P. & N. Spada 2021. How Languages Are Learned 5th Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.), the nature of language in social life (e.g., Ahearn, L. 2012. Living language: an introduction to linguistic anthropology. Malden, MA, Wiley-Blackwell.), and sociolinguistic research on language use in Indonesia (e.g., Errington, J. 2022. Other Indonesians: nationalism in an unnative language. New York, Oxford University Press.). These materials were also inspired by earlier Indonesian language curriculum projects, including the tertiary curriculum materials produced as part of the Teaching Indonesian as a Foreign Language (TIFL) project, the primary and secondary school Suara Siswa curriculum materials, and more recently the Let’s Speak Indonesian materials produced by Ellen Rafferty and colleagues.

Using this material
We expect that those using these materials are experienced teachers of Indonesian with high levels of ability in Indonesian who will draw on this expertise when using these materials. If you are new to teaching Indonesian, then you might like to try the approach we take which is a topic-based one. Below is a sample of activities that can be put together for your classes along with suggested ways of assessing learning outcomes.

Activities: Each lesson would be preceded by students being invited to watch a short video and video interview on the topic and then do an assessed online quiz (requiring about 1-2 hours of student work in total). In a three-hour class, this would then be followed by some of the below activities that typically take 10-30 minutes to complete and over the course of the class enable learners to use all four macro skills (Speaking – S; Listening – L, Reading – R, Writing – W), as well as relationship building activities among students (e.g. pair work and group work):

1)   S & L: A brainstorm of new vocabulary that students encountered in this video, including terms used for saying “I” (e.g., aku, saya, etc.) and “you” (kamu, anda, kin terms such as Pak, Bu, Mas, Mbak + person’s name, etc.) and the ways in which other persons were referred to (beliau, dia/ia, kin term + name, etc.,).
2)   S, L, R, W: An invitation to form pairs and do the dictation competition.
3)   S, L, W: An invitation to watch a short news story, write a summary of it in Indonesian, and then in Indonesian tell other peers about this story.
4)   S, L: A story telling task where students each have a collage of pictures and are invited to create and orally tell a story in Indonesian that connects some of the pictures.
5)   R & W: Students are invited to look at examples of public awareness signage and produce one that covers the topic being worked on in class.
6)   L & S: Invite students to watch interviews with youth about their experiences of flooding from Australia and Indonesia and identify the similarities and differences in experiences.
7)   L: Invite students to watch a short film that covers the topic while unpacking everyday cultural points that emerge in the story (e.g., visiting etiquette, importance of a KTP, use of words for saying I and you and how this relates to role relationships and status.
8)   S & L: Guessing game – invite students to form two groups, reporters and interviewees. Give the group a theme (e.g., dermawan (aid); mengungsi (evacuate); rumah ditinggikan (elevate the home); swadaya (local self/community help); tidur di kapal (sleep on the boat).) Each group then has to brainstorm the types of embodied behaviours and/or language that they could use to mime and talk about experiences relating to their theme. Once done, the interviews are to mime these behaviours and/or report an experience while the reporters are to guess which theme it relates to.
9)   R & W: Puzzle – Students are provided with short sentences from a news story (e.g., from the Suara Merdeka stories). Their task is to put the back into the order that they are in the original story. Once done they can check their answers with the original story.
10)   L & R: Puzzle – Students are provided with a jumbled transcript of some of a YouTube news report about flooding. They then need to listen to the recording and number the utterances in their transcript in the order that they hear them. Once done they can self-assess how they went by looking at the correct transcripts.
11)   An information gap task where students each have a picture and need to use all their Indonesian to work out the differences in each other’s picture.
12)   Role playing an interview between a reporter and person impacted by flooding or an interaction between a government official and a local impacted by flooding. Students can be invited to research this first using some of the YouTube video resources they are already familiar from the quiz or by being provided with new ones from the lists below. Students can also be invited to use terms for I and you and appropriate conversation strategies, such as repetition, basa-basi, gesture, and body language.

Assessment: Ideally you would assess all four macro skills over the course of the semester. In addition to the weekly quizzes (listening and reading), assessing learning outcomes can be done in a number of ways. Here are some suggestions: 1) interview an Indonesian about their experiences of flooding and transcribe the interview (speaking, listening, reading, writing); 2) prepare an oral presentation about one of the themes you have studied this year (speaking and listening); 3) do a role play of a situation relating to one of the themes you have studied (speaking and listening); write an essay in Indonesian that summarizes one of the main themes covered citing YouTube material, news reports, and the scholarly literature on the topic; 5) Write a research proposal for a study that would focus on one of the themes studied in class (research skills).

Curriculum materials
Below are links to the Indonesian language resources. Note that some resources are still being produced. These materials are organized into themes: dermawan (aid); mengungsi (evacuate); rumah ditinggikan (elevate the home); swadaya (local self/community help); tidur di kapal (sleep on the boat).

Video interviews and quizzes [link to access the materials]

YouTube videos about tidal flooding in Indonesia and quizzes

Pair work learning activities using reports about tidal flooding from the online newspaper Suara Merdeka
There are five themes: Reactions to tidal flooding; Understanding tidal flooding; Impacts of tidal flooding; Innovations; Challenges. To access this material, click here.

Story telling tasks using collages of pictures about tidal flooding
There are five themes: dermawan (aid); mengungsi (evacuate); rumah ditinggikan (elevate the home); swadaya (local self/community help); tidur di kapal (sleep on the boat). To access this material, click the relevant links below:

Information gap tasks
There are five main themes: dermawan (aid); mengungsi (evacuate); rumah ditinggikan (elevate the home); swadaya (local self/community help); tidur di kapal (sleep on the boat). To access this material, click the relevant links below:

Info graphics
There are infographics produced by the Badan Nasional Penanggulan Bencana (BNPB) between 2012 to 2022. To access this material, click here.

Scholarly literature on tidal flooding
There is an ever-increasing amount of literature on tidal flooding in Indonesia, here is a link to just some of this literature, click here [link to material]

Bott, L.-M. (2020). Living with sea level change and coastal flooding – Collective responses of households and communities in Indonesia. (PhD). University of Cologne, Köln, Germany.

Bott, L.-M., et al. (2019). Adaptive neighborhoods: The interrelation of urban form, social capital, and responses to coastal hazards in Jakarta. Geoforum 106: 202-213.

Bott, L.-M. and B. Braun (2019). How do households respond to coastal hazards? A framework for accommodating strategies using the example of Semarang Bay, Indonesia. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 37: 101177.

Bott, L.-M., et al. (2020). Translocal social capital as a resource for community-based responses to coastal flooding – Evidence from urban and rural areas on Java, Indonesia. Geoforum 117: 1-12.

Irawan, A. M., Marfai, M. A., Munawar, Nugraheni, I. R., Gustono, S. T., Rejeki, H. A., . . . Faridatunnisa, M. (2021). Comparison between averaged and localised subsidence measurements for coastal floods projection in 2050 Semarang, Indonesia. Urban Climate, 35, 100760. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2020.100760

Joseph, V., Thornton, A., Pearson, S., & Paull, D. (2013). Occupational transitions in three coastal villages in Central Java, Indonesia, in the context of sea level rise: a case study. Natural Hazards, 69(1), 675-694. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-013-0735-6

Ley, L. (2021). Building on borrowed time: rising seas and failing infrastructure in Semarang. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Ley, L. (2016). "Dry feet for all": Flood management and chronic time in Semarang, Indonesia. Österreichische Zeitschrift für Südostasienwissenschaften 9(1): 107-126.

Marfai MA, K. L. (2008). Tidal inundation mapping under enhanced land subsidence in Semarang, Central Java Indonesia. Natural Hazards, 44(1), 93-109. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-007-9144-z

Marfai, M. A., Sekaranom, A. B., & Ward, P. (2015). Community responses and adaptation strategies toward flood hazard in Jakarta, Indonesia. Natural Hazards, 75(2), 1127-1144. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-014-1365-3

Marfai, M. A. (2014). Impact of sea level rise to coastal ecology: a case study on the northern part of Java island, Indonesia. Quaestiones Geographicae 33(1): 107-114.

Nurhidayah, L. (2021). Sea-Level Rise (SLR) and Its implication on human security and human rights in Indonesia: a legal analysis. In R. Djalante, J. Jupesta, & E. Aldrian (Eds.), Climate Change Research, Policy and Actions in Indonesia: Science, Adaptation and Mitigation (pp. 33-52). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Nurlatifah, A., Martono, Susanti, I., & Suhermat, M. (2021). Variability and trend of sea level in southern waters of Java, Indonesia. Journal of Southern Hemisphere Earth Systems Science, 71(3), 272–283. doi: https://doi.org/10.1071/ES21004

Nursetiawan, et al. (2022). The scenario of sea-level rise on land and buildings affected by tidal floods in Batang Regency Central Java. AIP Conference Proceedings 2453(1).

Suyarso, S., Setiawati, M. D., & Supriyadi, I. H. P., Bayu. (2023). Climate change indicator, impact, adaptation, and innovation at the local level: learn from the peoples’ experience of the coastal plain of Probolinggo, East Java, Indonesia. In U. Chatterjee, R. Shaw, G. S. Bhunia, M. D. Setiawati, & S. Banerjee (Eds.), Climate change, community response, and resilience: Insight for socio-ecological sustainability (pp. 93-118). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Triyanti, A., Marfai, M. A., Mei, E. T. W., & Rafliana, I. (2021). Review of Socio-Economic Development Pathway Scenarios for Climate Change Adaptation in Indonesia: Disaster Risk Reduction Perspective. In R. Djalante, J. Jupesta, & E. Aldrian (Eds.), Climate Change Research, Policy and Actions in Indonesia: Science, Adaptation and Mitigation (pp. 13-31). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Utami, C. W., Giyarsih, S. R., Marfai, M. A., & Fariz, T. R. (2021). Kerawanan banjir rob dan peran gender dalam adaptasi di Kecamatan Pekalongan Utara. Jurnal Planologi, 18(1), 94-113. Retrieved from https://jurnal.unissula.ac.id/index.php/psa/article/view/13588

van Bijsterveldt, C. E. J., Herman, P. M. J., van Wesenbeeck, B. K., Ramadhani, S., Heuts, T. S., van Starrenburg, C., . . . Bouma, T. J. (2023). Subsidence reveals potential impacts of future sea level rise on inhabited mangrove coasts. Nature Sustainability, 6, 1565-1577. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-023-01226-1

Warsilah, H. (2021). Resilience of coastal cities in facing climate change: reclamation case of Benoa Bay Bali and North Jakarta Bay. In R. Djalante, J. Jupesta, & E. Aldrian (Eds.), Climate Change Research, Policy and Actions in Indonesia: Science, Adaptation and Mitigation (pp. 121-147). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Widiyaningtyas, S. (2022). Pemodelan banjir rob terhadap risiko social di wilayah pesisir Kabupaten Kendal. (S1). Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta, Surakarta. Retrieved from http://v2.eprints.ums.ac.id/archive/etd/105598/12/

World Bank Group. (2021). Climate risk country profile: Indonesia. Retrieved from Washington: https://climateknowledgeportal.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/2021-05/15504-Indonesia%20Country%20Profile-WEB_0.pdf

Associate Professor Zane Goebel

Zane is the Chief Investigator and co-director of CFP. With Udiana and David he facilitates the development of collaborative research projects, funding bids, high quality academic outputs, supports HDR students and coordinates research training. He fosters partnerships and research translation with impacted communities, government, and universities in Australia and Indonesia.

Dr Udiana Puspa Dewi

Udiana is the co-director of CFP. Udiana completed her PhD in linguistic anthropology at UQ in 2023 with Zane and David as her supervisors. With Zane and David she facilitates the development of collaborative research projects, funding bids, high quality academic outputs, supports HDR students and coordinates research training. She fosters partnerships and research translation with impacted communities, government, and universities in Australia and Indonesia.

Associate Professor David Chapman

David is the co-director of CFP. With Zane and Udiana he facilitates the development of collaborative research projects, funding bids, high quality academic outputs, supports HDR students and coordinates research training. He fosters partnerships and research translation with impacted communities, government, and universities in Japan.

Mr Lukman Hakim

For his PhD starting in 2025, Mr. Lukman Hakim will use linguistic anthropology and participatory action research to study of how farmers in the Kendal regency communicate about their adaptations to daily tidal flooding.

Ms Sri Indra Kurnia

Upon receiving a PhD scholarship, Ms. Sri Indra Kurnia plans to use linguistic anthropology and participatory action research to investigate how local health providers and community members communicate about health issues related to rob (tidal) flooding in Kendal regency and seek strategies to improve this communication to enhance public health outcomes.

Mr Mohammad Lukman

Upon receiving a PhD scholarship, Mr. Mohammad Lukman will use linguistic anthropology and participatory action research to explore the nexus between linguistic practices, cultural frameworks, and adaptive responses amidst the escalating threat of tidal flooding in a coastal community in Kendal regency.

Delfina Chrisyandra (Hanna)

Hanna is the CFP Coordinator. Hanna’s role is to work with the directors to develop and implement strategic plans, and to manage the project’s operations and engagement activities. Hanna is doing her masters in communication at UQ. She has experience and an ongoing interest in working with Indonesian NGOs and has worked with Zane and Udiana as a winter scholar on the relationship between global funding cycles and priorities in the development space in Indonesia.

Oktolita Elsanadia (Elsa)

Elsa is the Communications and Events Officer for CFP. Elsa assists with the project’s outward facing communications, activity reporting, and event planning and execution. Elsa is doing her masters in education at UQ. In 2024 Elsa worked with Zane and Udiana as a winter scholar examining what educational material were currently used in Indonesia for educating primary, secondary, and tertiary students about Indonesian natural disasters.

Sakura Savelieva

Sakura is a student researcher working on the Flooding Youth Futures project. She is currently completing her second year in an urban planning degree at UQ. She has a deep interest in environmental challenges, particularly flooding, an issue that has been increasingly affecting both Australia and Indonesia due to climate change. Participating in this project is preparing Sakura for her advanced studies which she wishes to pursue in the future, especially with an Indonesia focus.

Raihan Yates

Raihan is a student researcher working on the Flooding Youth Futures project. He is currently completing a degree in development studies and Indonesian language. He has a deep interest in development issues in Indonesia and participating in this project is preparing Raihan for advanced studies.

Melinda Cahyadi Wanto (Melinda)

Melinda is completing a major in English Literature at BINUS University in Jakarta. She is actively involved as Scholarship Mentor at BINUS. She is currently working on the Flooding Youth Futures project. Through this project, she aims to deepen her understanding of the links between language, culture, and the environment via deepening her understanding of environmental issues in Indonesia and Australia.

Muhammad Jawad Yuwono (Jawad)

Jawad is currently completing an English degree at BINUS University in Jakarta. He was a web content manager for BINUS Sanctuary located in the English Department at BINUS. He has been interested in both literary ecocriticism and sociolinguistics. He is currently working on the Flooding Youth Futures project. By joining this project, he hopes to deepen his understanding on the relationship between language, society, and environmental issues, especially in relation to flooding in Australia and Indonesia.

Undergraduate researcher training workshops on research methods for the DFAT-funded project “Flooding Youth Futures”

31 July 2024, 4–5pm

7 August 2024, 4–5pm

14 August 2024, 4–5pm

21 August 2024, 4–5pm

2 August 2024, 4–5pm

This series of five workshops introduced 4 Australian and Indonesian undergraduate researchers to how to ethically conduct research for this project. It included invitations to read a series of papers and chapters on linguistic anthropology, discuss them, think about how they related to matters of ethics, work on data transcription, discuss the ethics permission process, and read approved participant information sheets and consent forms.

Community Workshop on Recording and Dissemination of Youth Experiences of Tidal Flooding (Indonesia)

21 January 2025, 8.30am–4pm

This workshop aims to broaden the scope of our project Flooding Youth Futures by offering training to research participants and their peers in documenting their experiences of tidal flooding. This will be a first step in a longer process of then engaging with bureaucrats, policy makers and politicians around long term solutions to the impacts of tidal flooding.

Flooding Youth Futures ZOOM launch of Indonesian language curriculum materials

19 February 2025, 2–4pm

This event aims to get together tertiary Indonesian language educators from around Australia and publicize the new freely available Indonesian language learning materials created as part of our project, “Flooding Youth Futures”.

Seminars on work in progress

During these monthly seminars, those interested in the area of communicating flooding will present a short paper on their current work. A member of the research team or affiliates of the project will offer a commentary. This is then followed by an open discussion among attendees. These sessions are designed to facilitate connections within our research project and with researchers from other faculties and universities. These seminars also offer an opportunity for researchers to receive early constructive and supportive feedback during the write-up of their research.

See upcoming sessions

We are always interested in receiving proposals that seek to use linguistic anthropology to do masters and PhD on the topic of communicating flooding. Before sending your proposal, please contact Associate Professor Zane Goebel for guidance on the format and content of your proposal.

We also work with and mentor winter and summer scholars who wish to work on various aspects of our Communicating Flooding Project. We will advertise available projects for the winter scholar program in June 2025 early in 2025 in our newsletter.