Big Trees Element Flood Prevention

In talks in the morning February 18, 2010 in a private radio station, Nuim Khaiyath say, that in the book Inside the Third World mentioned one threat to Indonesia is the problem of flooding. He thinks this happened because the ground has been covered by all buildings so that such a large rainfall can not be absorbed by the soil.

Talk about this flood light conversation reminded us again some time ago. One of the causes is direct rainwater hits the ground is because departement of landscape have a habit is wrong, ie, prune trees during the rainy season. Indeed the reason for pruning is usually a broken tree branch or branches of trees are feared to be too low for vehicles passing underneath.

Do not know how in other cities, but in Jakarta we noticed there has been changes to the way that the tree trimming, this is happening since the era of Sarwo Handayani, trees trimmed or they cut--because usually after trimming only remaining large trunk--already much higher than the previous era. What had been "cutting" of trees held at a height of two to three meters, on Handayani era have been carried out at a height of 3 to 5 meters, although the cuts are still relatively the same way, ie tripe so only remaining the large trunk.

By way of trimming like that, someday some buds that will grow into a new branch of the former tends to occur around the stem was cut and also the one that resulted from broken tree branches at a later date, other than because angsana trees that usually planted on the shoulders of roads in Indonesia from Jakarta, Sabang to Merauke, indeed not of the type of hard wood plants that are not easily broken. However, due to the application of the wrong policies (uniformity) at the age ago, these plants eventually became a kind of plant can we find a mandatory throughout the country.

Planting angsana used to replace the previous acacia, originally only intended as a temporary plant that serves to shade and absorbing pollution, because both of these plants is rapid growth. The next plan is on the sidelines of this tree line will be planted with perennial tree species that are not easily broken, in order to replace these trees angsana later, but this plan never materialized.

One large and leafy tree function is that it can withstand rain water that poured from the sky in order not to fall directly onto the surface of the earth (soil), but this function did not realized by us all, because now it is rare that there are large trees that can shade as a shelter in times of rain. Whereas large trees shade can hold water within a half to one hour before the water is dripping or flowing through the rod and this means giving opportunities that exist on the surface of the ground water seep or flow first, so this became one of the elements of flood prevention.

Tree with a lot of leaves have a wide surface area so it can function to accommodate large amounts of water. That is also why in times of rain the tree branches to be lower than normal or even be broken due to the weight load was large enough water. So should the trees not be cut in times of rainy season, if any, should be forced to cut only to the particular branch has become too low.

This article can complement "Banjir Karena Ulahku" that I wrote before writing this.

| February 18, 2010 | samidirijono | architect |