Regional transformation in Semarang City, Indonesia

Abstract

Endowed with rapidly changing physical and socio-economic conditions, Semarang City in Central Java Province serves as an interesting case study of Indonesia’s urban transformation. Secondary data, coupled with field observations and in-depth interviews with key informants and experts, were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative descriptive methods to show complex variations in urban evolution between Semarang’s numerous districts, with changes occurring much faster in some locations than in others. We show that urbanisation proceeds most rapidly where vacant open spaces and investment in various kinds of new public infrastructure are dominant, especially in such districts as Tembalang, Gunungpati, Genuk and Pedurungan. In contrast, transformation processes operate more slowly in Semarang’s saturated inner core.