Narrow Results

This paper focusses on the recent tsunami in Indonesia and the factors led to the mass killing. We also discussed the failure of early warning systems, steps, methods, and technologies, in general, to improve the early warning systems in the future to mitigate the loss of lives and property during these impending disasters. We believe that this paper is timely as Indonesia has seen one of the worst tsunamis in recent years and the threat is still on. Hence, we stress the importance of improving and strengthening the existing early warning systems.

Propagation across the open ocean onto the continental shelf of Australia of tsunami waveforms generated by submarine earthquakes has been modelled using a coarse-grid depth-averaged hydrodynamic-numeric model. The initial conditions require the specification of the seafloor displacement field, which is determined analytically using the seismic parameters of the fault which generated the tsunami.

Focussing mechanisms are evident as the waveform propagation responds to bathymetric features. Near the land boundary, emphasis is upon the envelope of tsunami amplitudes and arrival times, which are compared with tide gauge data where available.

This model has been developed with a view to identify the areas of the Australian coast most vulnerable to tsunami damage due to seismic activity in the Indonesian region and large earthquakes south of Australia. The next phase of this project involves linking this model to a fine-grid coastal-sea model to simulate runup and inundation.

This chapter uses the Japan National Report on Disaster Reduction to the World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) (Kobe, Japan) in 2005 and the National Progress Report on the Implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) (2011–2013) premised on the HFA priority areas format to assess the status of DRR capacity in Japan. The assessment was conducted using components such as institutional arrangements, leadership, knowledge, and accountability: aspects drawn from the UNDP capacity assessment framework. The overall result showed a high DRR capacity. To examine this baseline capacity against a real disaster, a capacity gap assessment was done on the Great East Japan Earthquake with a focus on the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Several institutional, leadership, knowledge, accountability, psycho-socio-cultural and other gaps were identified. For a more effective future DRR response, the chapter then formulates and assembles a generic, systematic DRR capacity assessment framework factoring in the Basic Act for National Resilience, enacted two years after the Great East Japan Earthquake.