Indian Ocean Tsunami on 26 December 2004: Numerical Modelling of Inundation in the City of Matara on the South Coast of Sri Lanka

Abstract

On December 26, 2004, the coastal belt of Sri Lanka as well as several other countries bordering the Indian Ocean suffered massive loss of life and damage to property due to the tsunami unleashed by the third largest earthquake ever recorded. One way of mitigating potential loss of lives from a similar event in the future is through advance warning of impending tsunami and quick evacuation of vulnerable coastal communities to safer areas. The detailed planning required for such evacuation exercises is usually carried out based on tsunami inundation maps. Accordingly, the present paper outlines the numerical modelling carried out to develop a high-resolution tsunami inundation map, as a case study, for the city of Matara on the south coast of Sri Lanka, which was devastated by the 2004 tsunami. The results give the spatial distribution of the extent of inundation as well as the maximum flow velocities due to an event similar to the 2004 tsunami.