Defining indicators to measure risks of mangrove ecosystem in tropical region: case study Indonesia

Abstract

Mangrove plays important role in the coastal ecosystem worldwide, and Indonesia as an archipelagic country occupies about 27% of the global mangrove area. Unfortunately, about 48% of areas of Indonesia’s mangroves have been damaged. Human, biophysics and climate stressors are found to affect the mangrove damages. Using a case study of Pekalongan and Demak, i.e., the prioritized locations for mangrove rehabilitation in Indonesia, this study translated the contributing stressors into quantifiable indicators that can be used to measure the risks. The risk framework on climate change assessment and ecological sensitive evaluation was employed to define the measured indicators and parameters. The indicators were classified into distinctive groups of hazards, exposures, and vulnerability which were composed of sensitivity and capacity. The indicators are then defined with regards to the existence of mangroves as an individual (vegetation), habitat, and ecosystem, and a set of parameters constitute the indicators measured the stressors of socio-economics, biophysics, and climate were determined with regards to the data availability and requirements. The measured indicators can be helpful to identify what strategies or actions should be devised to address the most contributing indicators to the mangrove risks and may be replicated to other coastal areas in the tropical regions.