sentences:  A new Decentralisation Act ("Decentralitatiewet") was enacted in 1903 that enabled local municipalities and regional governments to develop and to plan their own territory.Most northern coastal towns of Java had to deal with unrelenting population increases, and a subsequent huge demand for houses and infrastructures, sanitation, and other related development.Thomas Karsten saw himself as being at the right time with the town planning of Semarang in 1914 by working at Henry Maclaine's architecture firm.