An overview of the down-scaling values of physical and social vulnerability parameters for tsunami disaster at the city level - a case study of Banda Aceh

Abstract

The Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami occurred on December 26, 2004, has been one of the deadliest disasters in modern history. Banda Aceh City is one of the severely affected cities by the disaster. Many of the casualties were due to lack of knowledge in the community about the disaster and preparedness in facing the disaster. Now, after more than 10 years since the deadly disaster, the Indonesian government has created disaster risk maps for the provincial level and utilizing some of the provincial level parameters to create a district-or city-level risk maps. The purpose of this study was to analyze the dynamics of physical and social vulnerabilities at the district level over the last 10 years and to evaluate the sensitivity of the disaster vulnerability values by down-scaling the parameter values to the district or city level. This study is using Geographic Information System (GIS), which spatial data are encompassing the infrastructure, housings and the growth of population at risk up to the year 2017. The results reveal the remarkable distribution of risk levels at each investigated village. The physical vulnerability is valued moderately in Banda Aceh city about 54% whereby Gampong Laksana at Kuta Alam sub-district are among the highest vulnerability areas (0.933). As for the social vulnerability is valued high in Banda Aceh city, the highest vulnerable areas are located in Punge Ujong at Meuraxa sub-district (0.833). Overall, the vulnerability parameter value for a tsunami disaster in Banda Aceh city remains high, particularly at those villages located very close to the sea. More mitigation effort should, therefore, be reinforced at those highly risky coastal areas.