Risk and vulnerability assessment to tsunami and coastal hazards in Indonesia: Conceptual framework and indicator development

Abstract

Vulnerability Assessment and Risk Modelling is an important component for an effective End-to-End Tsunami Early Warning System and therefore contributes significantly to disaster risk reduction. The knowledge about elements at risk, their susceptibility, coping and adaptation mechanisms are a precondition for the setup of people centred warning structures, local specific evacuation planning and recovery policy planning. In the past the quantification of vulnerability was mainly based on economic damage assessments. According to the three pillars of sustainable development, we develop and present indicators for the socio-economic and physical dimension of vulnerability. The main task of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) together with the United Nations University, Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) and the Indonesian partners is an assessment of vulnerability and coastal risk towards tsunami threats. The study presented here is embedded in the German-Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System (GI-TEWS) project, where DLR and UNU-EHS aim at developing indicators to measure the vulnerability of coastal areas of Sumatra, Java and Bali exposed to tsunami risk. Products of the three years project include new physical and socio-economic vulnerability assessment, vulnerability and risk maps and guidelines for decision makers how to monitor and conduct continuous vulnerability assessment for effective early warning and the disaster mitigation strategies. This paper outlines in more detail the conceptual basis of the research, the process of indicator development and the project status.