Political ecology of the Southeastern sector of Lahar flood disaster prone areas of Semeru Volcano, Lumajang, East Java

The eruption of the Semeru Volcano on December 4, 2021 triggered huge losses for people living in disaster-prone areas of the Semeru Volcano Eruption. At least 1,027 residential houses were seriously and lightly damaged, dozens of people were found dead, and more than 10,565 people were displaced. The eruption of the Semeru Volcano has also resulted in massive land use changes, especially in the 2 villages with the most severe impacts, namely Supiturang Village, Pronojiwo District, and Sumberwuluh Village, Candipuro District, Lumajang Regency. The focus of this research is analyzing land change due to the 2021 eruption as well as analyzing the mal-operational practices of sand mining in the lava flow of Semeru Volcano with a political ecology lens. This research was conducted using a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative methods are carried out by geospatial analysis using Sentinel satellite imagery, to calculate the area of land change affected by lava flows and visualization of spatial data. While the quantitative method was carried out using in-depth interviews and documentation on communities affected by the eruption to dig up information related to the focus of this research. The results of this study are the distribution of rain lava floods in December 2021 covering Supiturang Village including Koboan Curah Hamlet, Room A, and Sumbersari. Meanwhile, Sumberwuluh Village includes Kamar Kajang Hamlet, Renteng Village, and Kebondeli, and has an impact on residents’ agricultural land to settlements with an area of 9.60 km2. The widespread distribution of rain lava in Sumberwuluh Village and the enlargement of the impact of rain lava floods were triggered by the morphology of the lower area of the embankment, to poor mining operations. In the 2021 eruption period, agricultural land buried by rain lava material reached 3.59 km2 in Supiturang and Sumbermujur villages; The condition of the survivors of the Semeru Volcano eruption in 2021 is still unstable in terms of their livelihoods, especially in terms of livelihoods, especially people who are used to farming must suffer losses due to crop failure, as well as some have lost access to their land resources due to being buried by lava material. The control of sand and stone resources in disaster-prone areas is triggered by a large demand from large-scale infrastructure development programs at both regional and national levels, resulting in the expansion of sand and stone mines to