Indonesia - GI-TEWS German-Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System

Country / Region: Indonesia / Asia
Focal point: Georisks

Begin of project: January 1, 2006

End of project: December 31, 2009

Status of project: December 31, 2009

Tsunami-affected house in Banda Aceh Source: BGR

In December 2004 one of the most powerful earthquakes occurred and triggered an enormous tsunami in southeast Asia. More than 150,000 human lives were lost and even more people were left homeless.

In order to improve the timely warning of the local population in Indonesia in case of a new tsunami event, a German-Indonesian project has been initiated to install and establish a tsunami early warning system (GI-TEWS). Funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the GI-TEWS project is composed of technical contributions from different German institutions, including BGR.

On the one hand, the GI-TEWS project puts strong focus on the technical development and setup of the early warning system. In addition to this, the GI-TEWS project focuses also on the dissemination of the warning message both to governmental decision making levels and to the concerned local population.

The GI-TEWS project consists of a total of six "Work packages", mainly dealing with scientific-technical aspects of the tsunami early warning system. The "Work package 6000" aims at human resources development as well as institutional setup and strengthening of institutions that are responsible for the effective and realtime operation of the system. In this context, the task of the "Work package 6200" assigned to BGR is to provide technical advisory services on a national level to the institutions that are being concerned with the setup and operation of the early warning system.

It is an important task of BGR to support networking among relevant and responsible institutions that are involved in the early warning system in order to ensure the unobstructed dissemination of a warning message all the way to the concerned local population. Another main aspect of the BGR contribution is to provide support to the definition of standardized procedures, elaboration of guidelines and their regulatory statutes to the point of institutional establishment.

This task requires an intensive dialogue and exchange of views with the decision making level as well as with the local population. On the German side all activities of the "Work package 6200" are carried out in close cooperation with the GFZ, the GTZ, InWEnt, Germany, as well as the UNU, Bonn.

Projects:

• Management of Georisks, Province Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (MANGEONAD)
• Good local Governance – Mitigation of Georisks

Partner:

Indonesian Ministry of Research (RISTEK)