Reconstructing contested landscapes : Dynamics, drivers and political framings of land use and land cover change, watershed transformations and coastal sedimentation in Java, Indonesia

Abstract

The dissertation examines land use, watershed, and coastal dynamics, their drivers, and related environmental governance and management approaches in Java, Indonesia. It questions long-standing narratives about the drivers of high river sediment loads and coastal sedimentation and contributes new insight into the dynamics and causes of these processes. The research thus deconstructs political discourses about watershed and coastal change and reconstructs these dynamics. It combines political ecology, land change science and historical cartography and utilises a broad range of related methods to directly link physical environmental changes with (historically rooted) struggles over resource access and control, and related political framings and modes of action. The most insightful findings of this research were generated at the intersections of the different themes, approaches and methods.