Land subsidence is thought to be worsening in Bandung, West Java, and in Jakarta because of excessive withdrawal of groundwater without complimentary recovery efforts, a Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) geologist said.

Speaking at his inauguration as a professor at the campus last week, Lambok Hutasoit said that he based his predictions on the results of his research using data from 1950 through the 2000s.

“Based on the data, simulations were made,” said Hutasoit who presented a speech entitled Numeric Simulation in Hydrology.

Cengkareng, in West Jakarta and Kemayoran in the east, were said to have suffered most from land surface erosion, where land had subsided 2 meters and 1.8 meters respectively.

“The causes are [due to] pumping water and burdens caused by new buildings. Those are human-made problems,” said Hutasoit who is also chairman of the ...