On-Site Earthquake Early Warning System as an Alternative Earthquake Mitigation Solution in Indonesia

Abstract

The Banten earthquake, which had a magnitude of 6.6 on January 14, 2022, damaged 3,078 houses. That<br />number consisted of 395 heavily damaged units, 692 moderately damaged units and 1,991 lightly damaged units<br />(Tempo.co, 2022). The Banten earthquake was a strong earthquake where the magnitude was greater than a scale of<br />5. Damage to houses caused by the earthquake occurred in most single-story houses or low-rise buildings. Given the<br />large number of one-story houses that are damaged every time a major earthquake occurs in Indonesia, there needs to<br />be appropriate mitigation measures to reduce the risk of earthquake disasters, especially for human casualties. An<br />On-site Earthquake Early Warning System (On-site EEWS) can be an alternative in reducing victims of the disaster.<br />This earthquake early warning system has sensors that are installed on the site of building houses and can predict<br />strong earthquake waves that are destructive in nature (S/Secondary Waves) through P/Primary Waves that arrive<br />early in about 10-20 seconds. This time is sufficient for evacuation for the occupants of a one-story house if the early<br />warning alarm is properly responded to. This early warning radius can reach 20 km from the on-site EEWS location<br />considering that this area has relatively the same vibration effect. Currently, Indonesia through the BMKG is<br />developing EEWS as a part of the existing earthquake mitigation system. The purpose of this study is to describe the<br />application of an on-site earthquake early warning system as an alternative solution for earthquake mitigation in<br />Indonesia. This study evaluates several EEWS applications in the literature to find the best alternative to be applied<br />in Indonesia. The critical factors for on-site implementation of the EEWS discussed in this paper are compared with<br />the Taiwan regional EEWS. Based on the existing validation, the on-site EEWS has an 80% accuracy rate in<br />predicting the intensity level of a strong earthquake, capable to automatically send an alarm message within 3<br />seconds and providing a warning time of at least 8 seconds before a destructive peak S wave arrives.