As part of the World Class Research University programs, Geography Faculty of Gadjah Mada University has conducted a strategic cooperation with the University of Cologne, Germany. One of the forms of the cooperation is the urbanization and megacities study. Here, some students from the University of Cologne and some students of the master degree program “Planning and Management of Coastal Area and Watershed (MPPDAS)” of Geography Faculty, Gadjah Mada University carried out a joint fieldwork in Jakarta on 13-24 March 2010. The joint fieldwork focused on the study of urban flooding, waste management and clean water handling. Besides doing the observation and measurement, they also interviewed the local citizens and visited Bakosurtanal and BPPT.
In addition to the joint fieldwork, the delegation from Cologne University, Prof. Dr. Frauke Krass of the Department of Geography, also gave General Lecture in Pascasarjana UGM on Tuesday, March 23, 2010, which was attended by more than 78 participants both from Gadjah Mada University and from several other universities. This public lecture was coordinated by Dr. Danang Sri Hadmoko of Geography Faculty, and Dr. Hartono, DEA, DESS (Director of UGM Post Graduate Program) who became the moderator. All of the participants attended this lecture enthusiastically and also got involved in further discussion guided by Prof. Krass. Besides, in this program, the optimization of the student and lecturer exchange programs between the two countries was also emphasized.
The theme of this program, which was opened by Prof. Suratman, the Dean of Geography Faculty UGM, was Urban Geography with Urbanization and Megacities in Indonesia and South-East Asia as focal points. This theme has been an important topic since urbanization becomes the global issue especially in megacities. This program was intended to address the issues related to the influence of geographical factors on the mega urban areas of which proposed solutions and new insights will be used as the basis for the prevention of the urbanization problems, mitigation, and risk decrease. In this program, there was also some technical discussion of the form of academic and research cooperation as well as the potential future funding. The final result of this program was expected to give real solution for megacities management in Indonesia.
Faculty of Geography UGM has been cooperating with Department of Geography, University of Cologne since 2005. The forms of cooperation including running some joint programs: joint Master and Doctoral degree programs, Summer School program, Sandwich Program for Doctoral degree and also organizing lectures given by guest lecturers.