Depok, September 24th. Athena Hastomo—student of the Masters Program, Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering (FT), Universitas Indonesia (UI)—successfully became 1 of 44 graduates of the UI Postgraduate Program who obtained a Summa Cumlaude degree with a Grade Point Average (GPA) of perfect 4. This achievement was announced at the UI Graduation Ceremony for Professional, Masters, Specialist and Doctoral Programs which took place on Saturday (23/9), at the UI Depok Campus Hall.
Athena managed to achieve a Master’s degree at the age of only 22 years thanks to her courage and perseverance in studies. “In semester 6, I decided to take part in the fast track program with several friends. From there, I managed to complete my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in just 5 years,” said Athena in the midst of the graduation ceremony.
Studying at UI for Athena was a very valuable opportunity because she got many opportunities and experiences to develop herself. During her studies at UI, she was trained to design and hone her engineering sense, and was supported to be involved in student activities and internship programs. “Luckily, I met lecturers who were very passionate about their fields of expertise, as well as friends who were diverse and very supportive,” said Athena.
According to her, the key to successful studies is making the best use of opportunities. She believes that knowledge can be obtained at any time and from anywhere, including in determining research ideas that have an impact. Starting from her practical work at the Kalibaru Container Terminal, Athena realized the importance of water resource management in the coastal areas of Jakarta – considering that this area is a complex location in terms of flood control. She was also moved to conduct an evaluation study on the performance of coastal embankments and river embankments as an effort to control flooding in the Muara Cengkareng Drain.
The construction of coastal embankments and river embankments along the Jakarta coastline is part of the National Capital Integrated Coastal Development (NCICD) master plan developed by the government to overcome Jakarta floods. Athena believes that the construction of the embankment needs to consider a combination of hazards simultaneously to measure how big an extreme event could occur.
By considering the compound hazards that occur due to land subsidence, sea level rise, tides, waves and rain, she found that the coastal and river embankment plans were good, although land subsidence and sea level rise factors could worsen flooding in coastal areas. Therefore, investment and cost-benefit analysis of supporting infrastructure is needed to reduce the impact of flooding.
From these findings, she then provided several technical recommendations that could be implemented in the area to improve flood management. Some of these include adding new pump locations and increasing existing pump capacity to reduce inundation by 43.16% in current conditions and 10.13% to 53.16% in the 2050 projection. Second, dredging to maintain channel capacity. Lastly, controlling local land subsidence by implementing regulations and increasing public awareness.
Athena hopes that her research findings and recommendations can make a contribution to the government in its efforts to deal with flooding on the coast of Jakarta. “Of course, this research could not have been successful without support from many parties. I am very grateful to all parties for their support, enthusiasm, and presence in helping me study at FTUI. Especially for my supervisor, Dr. Evi Anggraheni, S.T., M.T., who opened up many opportunities and involved me in many things while I was studying at UI. Hopefully, the knowledge I have achieved can continue to be improved and provide benefits to the wider community,” said Athena.
