East Nusa Tenggara

Ecosystem Condition & Land Cover

The Benain Watershed covers four regencies: Malaka, North Central Timor, South Central Timor (TTS), and a small part of Belu Regency. As much as 59% of its total area is spread across the upstream and middle reaches of the river in TTS Regency. On the other hand, the Noelmina Watershed covers Kupang and TTS Regencies, with 33% of its area located in TTS, encompassing the upstream, middle, and downstream river sections.

Considering the sub-watershed delineation, only 15 Benain sub-watersheds (out of a total of 48 sub-watersheds) and 15 Noelmina sub-watersheds (out of a total of 23 sub-watersheds) cross TTS Regency.

4 Dominant Land Covers:

• Mixed perennial crops with shrubs.
• Savanna / grass.
• Shrubs.
• Secondary forest (a small patch of primary forest is still present upstream of the Noelmina and Benain watersheds, such as in the Mount Mutis area).

Disaster Challenges & Topography

The topography of the Benain and Noelmina watersheds mostly consists of hills and mountains. In relation to flood risk, the highest index is only found in a small portion of the downstream area, but it should be noted that the downstream part of the Benain watershed is outside TTS Regency. In contrast to the flood risk pattern, high drought risk is found randomly throughout the watershed areas of both Benain and Noelmina.

Food Security Index

Based on the food security and vulnerability index map, the most insecure areas are indicated by index 6.

• In the Benain Watershed, the index is dominated by numbers 4 – 5.
• In the Noelmina Watershed, the index is dominated by numbers 3 – 4.