Adaptation strategy to coastal erosion by rural communities: Lessons learned from Ujunggebang village, Indramayu, West Java, Indonesia

Coastal hazard due to wave activity, in the form of coastal erosion, has long been a problem in the coastal area of Ujunggebang. Loss of coastal land in the coastal area has removed a lot of rice fields, settlements, and public facilities. Efforts to maintain the coastline along 3,300 m of the coastal area, by building coastal defense structures (CDS), have been carried out by the central government since 2006 but, until 2015, the CDS that has been built is still only around 1782 m long, in some places the structure is damaged due to wave activity, and in general the structure is not high enough to prevent overtopping. Meanwhile, unprotected coastal segments with CDS have experienced significant erosion. The idea of land use change as an effort to adapt coastal hazards, which was conveyed through an idea socialization approach and through showing examples of coastal area management practices to villagers, gave birth to the idea of developing a coastal tourism area in the village as a complementary measure for the existing coastal defense structure. Although the main problem faced-coastal erosion-has not been resolved, the development of the tourism area has been recognized by the local government as successfully changing the life of the village community.