| Field | Riverside settlement and river border management |
|---|---|
| Jurisdiction | Yogyakarta City, Indonesia |
| Principal instruments | Permen PUPR 28/2015 (cited by the city); PP 30/2024, Pasal 61–62 |
Mundur, madhep, munggah, in its programme form Mundur Munggah Madhep Kali (M3K), is a riverside settlement practice applied in the city of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, under which houses on river banks are set back from the river, raised above flood level and turned to face the river. The three Javanese words mean "step back", "face" and "step up". The Yogyakarta city government describes the programme as moving houses three metres back from the river embankment, raising them above the riverside road so that flood water does not enter the settlement, and treating the river as a front yard whose cleanliness must be maintained.[1]
The practice has been applied along the Code, Gajah Wong and Winongo rivers as part of the city's programme for upgrading riverside settlements classified as slums.[2] Its setback rule corresponds to the river border areas (daerah sempadan sumber air) regulated under the water resources law of Indonesia, and the city cites the national regulation on river and lake borders as one of its legal bases.[1:1]
In May 2026 CRPG published an account of the practice being presented at a workshop on water governance in Yogyakarta, where it was offered as a spatial-planning method that could be written into recommendations for regency and city planning instruments.[3]
The first element, mundur (to step back), is a building setback. The city's programme description sets it at three metres from the river embankment (talud).[1:2] The second, munggah (to step up), raises houses above the level of the road beside the river, so that a flood does not carry river water into the settlement.[1:3] The third, madhep kali (to face the river), orients houses so that the river becomes the front yard, which residents are expected to keep clean.[1:4] The CRPG account also records the phrasing ngajep kali for the third element and describes the raising of floors as incremental, undertaken as household resources allow.[3:1]
The CRPG account presents the three elements as addressing, respectively, riparian buffer zones, social attitudes to water bodies and household-scale flood adaptation, which international water governance frameworks usually treat as separate subjects.[3:2]
The programme is administered by the Yogyakarta city government within its programme for cities without slums (Kota Tanpa Kumuh). A 2021 report on the programme cited the city's medium-term development plan for 2017 to 2022 and mayoral decisions designating slum settlement locations, among them Decision 158/2021.[2:1] The programme description published by the city lists Peraturan Menteri PUPR 28/2015 on the determination of river and lake border lines and Mayoral Decision 158/2021 as its legal bases.[1:5]
At national level, Peraturan Pemerintah 30/2024 on water resources management treats the regulation of river border areas as part of the protection of surface water sources. Border areas are set by the minister, governor or regent or mayor within their powers under guidelines issued by the minister, and those authorities are to prevent buildings and land uses that disturb the flow or reduce the capacity of the water source, and to prevent the border area from becoming a place for dumping waste.[4] The workshop account published by CRPG proposed identifying which provincial and district regulations already incorporate the practice and which do not.[3:3]
K31[E] "Program M3K (Mundur Munggah Madhep Kali)", Kelurahan Prawirodirjan, Yogyakarta City Government, 13 September 2023. https://prawirodirjankel.jogjakota.go.id/detail/index/29148 (in Indonesian) ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
[E] "Penataan Kawasan Jogja: Mundur Munggah Madhep Kali", Harian Jogja, 31 December 2021. https://jogjapolitan.harianjogja.com/read/2021/12/31/510/1092130/penataan-kawasan-jogja-mundur-munggah-madhep-kali (in Indonesian) ↩︎ ↩︎
[E] "Mundur–Madhep–Munggah: a Yogyakarta approach to living with rivers", crpg.id, 18 May 2026. https://crpg.id/mundur-madhep-munggah-a-yogyakarta-approach-to-living-with-rivers/ Cited for the record of the workshop contribution and CRPG's account of it. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
[P] Peraturan Pemerintah 30/2024 tentang Pengelolaan Sumber Daya Air, Pasal 1
(definition of Daerah Sempadan Sumber Air), Pasal 61 and Pasal 62. LN 2024/167.
regulation_id PP_30_2024. ↩︎