Sustainable Urbanism in East Kalimantan

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This article reflects on the experiences and insights gained during the LDE Thesis Lab on Sustainable Urbanism in East Kalimantan. Our group, consisting of nine students from Leiden University, Delft University of Technology, and Erasmus University Rotterdam, spent two weeks in Samarinda, where we were hosted by Mulawarman University. During this intensive period, we followed a fully packed program that offered a comprehensive introduction to the region’s complex socio-economic and environmental dynamics, highlighting the many nuances and grey areas inherent in these interactions. The LDE program offered an immersive way to connect and collaborate with Mulawarman students, to provide in-depth context and meaning to our individual thesis projects. We have broken up our thesis topic into three groups, environment/biosphere, society, and economy, following the SDG wedding cake.

Within the group, two students focused their thesis specifically on environmental aspects, examining the impacts on the biosphere and exploring how urban development intersects with ecological systems. The biosphere is the foundation, and starting point of the following linked-in articles about how our theses relate to the greater LDE thesis lab topic of Sustainable Urbanism in East Kalimantan.

Outcomes of the Research

Concluding Remarks

The main take-away from this LDE thesis lab is that in reality “Sustainable urbanism” is complex, chaotic and has a strong possibility for greenwashing. But that’s a key limitation of all sustainability topics in the real-world that we live in, the world is really grey. We don’t live in a black-and-white world, these sustainability topics are wicked-problems. People and organizations can have good intentions, and we had the amazing opportunity to see this all first hand. Our main take-away, and motivation as students, is to put these good intentions into concrete action, to try and make topics/initiatives less as greenwashing, but more as concrete steps towards the right direction.

We are the new generation that is taking over. It’s no longer possible to ignore sustainability. It’s now our choice and what we hope other people's choices who are reading our articles are to take this seriously and to make concrete action towards inclusive, concrete sustainable urbanism. Make the wicked problems less grey by being transparent about how the whole system interacts with each other, while also being aware of how our diverse disciplinaries can come together and to collaborate between cultures to understand different perspectives on sustainable urbanism in East Kalimantan.

We would also really like to thank Bonnie, Aida, Andre, Apip/Afif, Erlina, and Riki. Thank you as well to Professor Dr. Rudianto Amirta for helping with organizing and continuing collaboration with LDE, and the dean of the faculty of Forestry Prof. Dr. Irawan Wijaya Kusuma. Lastly, thank you Risa, we could not have gone without your continued (mental) support, and schedule updates for how long our naps could be, Risa for President <3. Everyone that we’ve connected with during our time, and we haven’t mentioned you personally, we still really appreciate all of the time and kindness that you’ve showed us, and you will all have a special place in our LDE hearts, and are always welcome to reach out - we would love to show you all around in the Netherlands.

Terima Kasih