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Following the 26 December 2004 tsunami, Planet Risk NGO took part in the international research program TSUNARISK and ATIP‐CNRS Jeune Chercheur. The aim of this paper is to encourage the development of tsunami‐resilient communities essentially through educative actions.

The tsunami risk in Indonesia was assessed by researchers. Planet Risk then used scientific findings and advice for building adapted prevention actions among Javanese populations.

Many people could have survived if they had received a basic knowledge of tsunamis. The Indonesian public as well as local authorities must be educated to face tsunami risk. To be efficient, this education must be adapted to local cultural and geographical characteristics. Collaboration between researchers and practitioners is a good means of reaching such an objective.

The paper is the result of a two‐year successful collaboration between interdisciplinary scientific teams and an NGO team. It demonstrates that an efficient prevention scheme can be implemented through this kind of collaboration. To the authors' knowledge it is the first time that such tsunami education programmes have been led in Indonesia.

The purpose of this paper in respect of tsunami‐affected villages in Tamil Nadu undertaken in a field trip in June 2005, and updated through online research is to first provide an overview of discrete, ongoing initiatives by different stakeholders – NGOs; Government and UNDP; Government's announcement to have a tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean in place by mid‐2007, paralleled by a partnership of different stakeholders to launch a pan‐India village‐info‐kiosk movement in July 2005.

The first step was to identify existing reports/programmes on disaster preparedess and mitigation, and then track the progress of the implementation of initiatives by different stakeholders. While highlighting the need for coordinated action, the author also proposed initiating a pilot project in two‐three pre‐selected village‐sites, which in turn could be upgraded to make them “Multi hazard‐ready”.

While the initiatives by different stakeholders were aimed at covering the targeted villages, as per their respective plans – there was as yet little visible attempt to privilege the tsunami‐affected villages, as was being done with their recovery efforts. Significantly, there was no mention of the proposed post tsunami Central Recovery Resource Center (CRRC) at Chennai “to meet the need for a coordinated action by all stakeholders” in the course of the discussions of early June, nor a reference to the potential for such a forum to deliberate on a coordinated Multi hazard, early warning action plan along the lines highlighted through vertical and horizontal linkages.

While the above activities were not part of a grand design – conceptualized, implemented and overseen by an over arching coordinating agency, nevertheless, together they add up to a broad based comprehensive DM resource base/infrastructure upon which hopefully an agency like the INCOIS in coordination with different stakeholders – possibly under the aegis of the Chennai CRRC – could build up its mandated tsunami – multi hazard – early warning system and its dissemination to the village‐level in TN.

The paper serves as a “one window resource guide” to provide at least the contours of a road map pointing to one of the few possible ways on how to go about a risk management plan in a coordinated and focused mode.

The purpose of this paper is to deliver a detailed analysis of the functioning of upstream–downstream interface process of the tsunami early warning and mitigation system in Sri Lanka. It also gives an understanding of the social, administrative, political and cultural complexities attached to the operation of interface mechanism, and introduces an analytical framework highlighting the significant dynamics of the interface of tsunami early warning system in Sri Lanka.

Through the initial literature review, a conceptual framework was developed, highlighting the criteria against which the interface process can be assessed. This framework was used as the basis for developing data collection tools, namely, documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews and observations that focused on the key stakeholder institutions in Sri Lanka. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data according to the conceptual framework, and an improved and detailed framework was developed deriving from the findings.

The manner in which the interface mechanism operates in Sri Lanka’s tsunami early warning system is discussed, providing a detailed understanding of the decision-making structures; key actors; standardisation; technical and human capacities; socio-spatial dynamics; coordination among actors; communication and information dissemination; and the evaluation processes. Several gaps and shortcomings were identified with relation to some of these aspects, and the significance of addressing these gaps is highlighted in the paper.

A number of recommendations are provided to address the existing shortcomings and to improve the overall performance of tsunami warning system in Sri Lanka.

Based on the findings, a framework was developed into a more detailed analytical framework that depicts the interface operationalisation in Sri Lanka, and can also be potentially applied to similar cases across the world. The new analytical framework was validated through a focus group discussion held in Sri Lanka with the participation of experts and practitioners.

This paper aims to provide a general overview of the international Tsunami warning system mandated by the United Nations, particularly on cataloging past studies and a strategic focus in the Indian Ocean, particularly on the Bay of Bengal region.

Present research assimilates the secondary non-classified data on the Tsunami warning system installed in the Indian Ocean. Qualitative review and exploratory research methodology have been followed to provide a holistic profile of the Tsunami rarly warning system (TEWS) and its role in coastal resilience.

The study finds the need for strategic focus to expand and interlink regional early warning cooperation mechanisms and partnerships to enhance capacities through cooperation and international assistance and mobilize resources necessary to maintain the TEWS in the Indian Ocean region. The enhanced capacity of the TEWS certainly improves the resilience of Indian Ocean coastal communities and infrastructures.

The study is original research and useful for policy planning and regional cooperation on data interlinkages for effective TEWS in the Indian Ocean region.

Public open spaces (POS) in cities are often measured as a strength to enhance cities’ sustainability with a contribution to the three pillars: economic, social and environmental. Nevertheless, the importance of POS for disaster resilience is less recognised and remains under-rehearsed in the urban planning context. Within this context, this research paper aims to investigate the methods and approaches of using POS to enhance the coastal cities’ resilience to tsunamis through planning and designing interventions.

This study used the grounded theory as the research strategy. Accordingly, data collection involved 72 unstructured interviews covering a wide variety of participants related to the field of study including tsunami-affected communities, disaster resilience experts, urban planners, sociologists and coastal planners, in the context of Sri Lanka. The grounded theory coding procedure is used to analyse the data that includes transcripts, notes, maps and documents.

The analysis reveals that there is a significant potential to use POS to enhance the coastal cities’ resilience to tsunamis as an emergency evacuation directing point, as a primary place for emergency rescue, as an agent for temporary sheltering, as a facilitator for tsunami disaster mitigation and as a mediator to provide tsunami awareness. Finally, the findings propose five guiding factors for planning POS to enhance coastal cities’ disaster resilience to Tsunamis.

This paper introduces an innovative and unique approach for future urban planners and design professionals, to plan and design POS with a new direction towards disaster resilience while ensuring sustainability.

The authors investigate the role of community engagement in the connection between disaster mitigation and disaster preparedness. Using a vulnerability-to-hazard framework built by the European Union, the authors study the case of Aceh province, Indonesia, which was hit hard by Asian tsunami in 2004.

The research design uses a single case study research. The authors study the case of Aceh province, Indonesia, by comparing improvements in disaster mitigation and disaster preparedness in a period longer than ten years beginning in 2004, right before the Asian tsunami that devastated the province. Aware that the connection between mitigation and preparedness is a broad research topic, the authors focus on the domain of pre-disaster evacuation.

The authors find that Aceh province has made substantial improvements in healthcare facilities and road quality (mitigation) as well as early alert systems and evacuation plans (preparedness). Socio-economic indicators of the community have improved substantially as well. However, there is a lack of safe sheltering areas as well as poor road signaling maintenance, which threatens the effectiveness of infrastructural improvements. The authors propose that community engagement would connect disaster mitigation and disaster preparedness. The connecting element is community-based maintenance of critical infrastructure such as road signals, which the government could facilitate by leveraging on operational transparency.

The findings open avenues for future research on the actionable engagement of communities in disaster mitigation and disaster preparedness.

This paper contributes to three areas of humanitarian logistics research: disaster management cycle (DMC), pre-disaster evacuations and community engagement in disaster management.

This paper aims to reintroduce to proponents of natural disaster readiness worldwide the history and content of the most renowned tsunami mitigation tale in Japan, “Inamura no Hi” (“The Rice Bale Fire”) for the purpose of reconnecting with its many virtues that have made it a cross-cultural pedagogical catalyst for tsunami preparedness education. At a time in the planet's history when global warming mitigation and pandemic advertence in a milieu in which equity, diversity and human rights are highly valued, the insights it contains pertaining to tsunami preparedness, plot design and the politics of its popularity make it particularly instructive.

The study used methods, approaches and techniques prevalent in cultural anthropology, i.e. primary texts, historical analysis, linguistic natural hazard preparedness education theory and ethnographic insights to assess how and why “Inamura no Hi” (“The Rice Bale Fire”) has come to be used so broadly on an international scale as a tsunami preparedness teaching tool and the politics involved in this process.

The study revealed that the cross-cultural relevance of “Inamura no Hi” (“The Rice Bale Fire”) is related to its unique authorship and development which has cultivated in it three qualities highly compatible with effective disaster mitigation at the international level. These are the simplicity of its message, the practical advice it dispenses and the universally agreeable morality it supports. However, the way in which the Japanese Government has promoted this story does not effectively encourage equity, diversity, or a respect for human rights as a major facilitator of preparedness among the many nations like itself in the region and in the world that are vulnerable to natural hazards.

The main limitations of the study are that it is based on a historic investigation of the origins of “Inamura no Hi” (“The Rice Bale Fire”) using materials in English and Japanese, a genealogical interpretation of the story using approaches prevalent in translation studies and a qualitative analysis of historical uses of the story, all of which are difficult to quantify. Since the study seeks to find social and cultural patterns in the relevant material presented, the analysis reflects a subjectivity common in all social scientific studies of this kind.

Educating its readers about tsunami preparedness is one of the most important functions of this paper. The study confirms that “Inamura no Hi” (“The Rice Bale Fire”) provides Japanese and non-Japanese alike with the opportunity to envision and construct a customized culturally specific sense of tsunami readiness by harnessing this dynamic. For Japanese, the story provides a chance to contemplate an astute view of Japanese-style tsunami management from the viewpoint of an outsider who became a well-respected citizen. For non-Japanese, the story offers an opportunity to be reflexive about tsunami readiness based on a cross-culturally adaptable template that Hamaguchi's protagonist Gohei provides.

Pedagogically speaking, “Inamura no Hi” (“The Rice Bale Fire”) makes the most sense when regarded as a starting point for preparing for any natural disaster anywhere. The story reminds us that the most educational, globally relevant tsunami preparedness narratives are those that complement and extend the latest of what the world knows about these destructive ocean waves to keep vulnerable citizens safe and alive. This study reveals that as important as the story is the politics of its delivery to provide the best first line of defense against tsunami amnesia which in Japan and many other countries has historically taken far too many lives.

The paper argues that “Inamura no Hi” (“The Rice Bale Fire”) is an example of a tsunami preparedness story that contains a variety of insights that continue to contribute to tsunami awareness education cross culturally that must not be underestimated. However, the way it is currently promoted by the Japanese Government needs to be improved, so that more representatives from more countries involved in tsunami preparedness and natural hazard readiness worldwide can benefit. These are insights not accessible by a researcher who is not bilingual in English and Japanese; thus, by using an ethnographic approach and participant observation utilizing both languages as part of long-term fieldwork, the researcher can gain these insights.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the case studies of communities’ understandings of natural disasters in Aceh Province, Indonesia, where a number of cultures and traditions which belong to the ancestral heritage continue to be used in a more modern context.

This research used a qualitative descriptive research paradigm in which the researcher attempted to describe or construct in-depth interview results for the research objects. The interviews were conducted in six disaster-prone areas in Aceh, i.e. Simeulue, Central Aceh, Aceh Tamiang, Pidie Jaya, North Aceh and dan Pidie. The interviewees were the informants in this research, which included traditional leaders, religious leaders, community leaders, headmen, youth figures and disaster victims. The technique for determining informants was through purposive sampling in which the sample is specified based on the need of the research.

Majority of the people in Aceh, especially those who live in earthquake- and tsunami-prone areas still practice this form of knowledge, as they have already realized that it makes a significant contribution to emergency management. They typically used their traditional knowledge to understand both the nature of local hazards and the risk reduction mechanism related to response mechanisms. In some events, they also used it as an alternative to recovery phase according to past information and experiences. This paper will discuss the contribution of traditional knowledge to emergency management by presenting some specific cases of indigenous stories in Aceh. The stories not only served as an early warning system but also can be used to develop more effective disaster risk reduction programmes to improve community awareness to deal with future threats.

On Simeulue Island, most of the indigenous people already possess the knowledge and value systems inherited through the generations, as a form of local wisdom “called smong” when encountering earthquakes and tsunamis. Beside smong, there is still considerable amount of other similar indigenous knowledge that originated amid traditional people, especially in rural areas, in Aceh. Thus, this paper attempts to identify the knowledge and its representation in the implementation of disaster mitigation efforts in Aceh.

The purpose of this study is to identify the preparedness of disaster mitigation agency officers in both urban and rural areas as high vulnerability zones in Aceh, Indonesia, in dealing with disasters.

This cross-sectional study adopted a conceptual framework from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and United Nations of Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)/International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) (LIPI-UNESCO/ISDR, 2006), explaining the study of community preparedness in anticipating earthquake and tsunami disasters. The framework of the study consists of five disaster preparedness parameters, namely, knowledge and attitude to face disasters, policies and guidelines, emergency response plans, disaster early warning systems and mobilization of resources. This conceptual framework was developed after the 2004 tsunami through an analysis study in the three provinces in Indonesia (Aceh, Padang and Bengkulu) experiencing earthquakes and tsunamis. This conceptual framework serves as a guideline and is in line with the objective of the regional disaster management Agency to reduce disaster risk through increasing community preparedness, especially providers or officers in anticipating disasters.

There was a significant difference in disaster preparedness among officers from the urban and rural areas. The area size, location accessibility, the communication network and disaster detection and warning facilities could associate with the results.

The respondents were selected from only two districts in Aceh Province, Indonesia, which are vulnerable to disasters. The study only identifies the disaster preparedness among disaster management agency officers (DMAOs) adopted from LIPI-UNESCO/ISDR about community preparedness in anticipating disasters particularly tsunami and earthquake. Therefore, the results of this study may have limited generalizability to other areas in Indonesia and beyond.

The results of this study could possibly serve as recommendations for policymakers and disaster management agencies, particularly in rural areas to prepare contingency plans that involve both internal and external institutions to arrange the regulations related to community-based emergency response plans and disaster early warning systems. Such programs of education, training and disaster drill needed to be in place and conducted regularly for the officers in a rural area. Finally, the other sub-scales showed no difference in disaster preparedness, however, collaboration and support to each other in disaster risk reduction plan by improving the capacity building, policy enhancement and disaster management guidelines are required. Also, attempts to optimize logistics adequacy, budget allocations and disaster preparedness education and training for both DMAOs are strongly recommended through the lens of the study. The results of the study might useful for further research that could be developed based on this current study.

The emergency response plans and disaster early warning systems were significantly different between the rural and urban officers in disaster preparedness. Attending disaster management programs, experiences in responding to disasters and the availability of facilities and funds could be considered in ascertaining the preparedness of officers to deal with disasters.

The main objective of this study is to develop a tsunami emergency response plan for a coastal community by adopting a community‐based disaster preparedness approach.

A multi‐strategy research design utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods was used. The weaknesses and strengths of the different agencies involved in responding to the 2004 tsunami disaster were identified through a focus group discussion. A survey was used to assess the preparedness of the community. Tsunami awareness and education were imparted through lectures, sermons, radio talk shows, informal briefings, workshops and printed materials. Tsunami evacuation routes, safe zones, warning protocols and evacuation plans were finalized through a consultation process with the community. A tsunami evacuation plan was verified during a table‐top exercise and was tested through a drill.

It is evident from the study that a community‐based approach (where the local community is taken as the primary focus of attention in disaster reduction) to tsunami mitigation and preparedness is viable. This process has provided an opportunity for tapping traditional organizational structures and mechanisms (including formal and informal community leaders) and capability‐building activities with the community disaster committees and volunteers.

Tsunami 2004 is the first ever tsunami disaster experienced in the country and thus the study provides significant lessons learned from the event. The community‐based approach to disaster preparedness is not the current practice in the country. Thus, the study demonstrates that the approach is a viable tool to enhance community preparedness to tsunami and other types of disasters as well.