icus newsletter · ulhue lhe, krueng raya and meulaboh. the damage was mostly by the battering and...

International Center for

Urban Safety Engineering

ICUS NEWSLETTERInternational Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science

The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 4 NUMBER 4JANUARY-MARCH 2005

SUMATRA EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI, 26 DECEMBER 2004

By

Teddy BOEN*

Area damaged by the tsunami disaster on December 26, 2004 (Meulaboh, Indonesia)

On Sunday morning Dec 26,2004, Banda Aceh was holding a10km marathon and someparticipants had already reached thefinishing line. At 07:58:50 WIT(Western Indonesia Time), the earthwas struck by a strong earthquake of

M9.0. Almost everybody panickedand lay down on the ground. Afterthe shaking s topped, peoplewandered watching some collapsedbuildings in the city. A TV reportereven toured the ci ty to checkdamaged and collapsed buildings. At

around 08:42 WIT, the first tsunamiwave reached the coastlines of BandaAceh and some people star tedshouting: “water, water from thesea”. Many people started runningtowards the city center. At around08:53 WIT, a second wave, more

On December 26, 2004, a great earthquake of M9.0, followed by a devastating tsunami struck the IndianOcean countries: Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand killing morethan 300 thousand people and leaving almost a million homeless. It was the 4th largest earthquake since1900, sending a wave of shock, and drawing sympathy and assistance offers from across the world. InIndonesia, over 200 thousand people were killed and 700,000 were displaced. This was the worst naturaldisaster experienced in its history in which Banda Aceh and North Sumatra suffered the most. Thisarticle is a quick survey report giving the overall information on damages to the engineered and non-engineered buildings with a touch to infrastructure damages in Indonesia.

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 4

tsunami forces such as battering,scouring, impact and buoyancy. InBanda Aceh, this zone goes up to3km in l and . Zone 2 was t heinundated part, where the tsunamiforce was reduced but the wavecaused flooding, dumping mud anddeb r i s . Th i s a r ea wasapproximately 0.5 to 1.5km furtherinland.

Disaster episodesalong the tsunami waves

In areas where the beach isgently sloped, the tsunami waveswere very powerful and this isevident in places like: Lhok Nga,Ulhue Lhe, Krueng Raya andMeu laboh . The damage wasmos t ly by t he ba t t e r i ng andscouring forces of the tsunami.This was observed from the debrisoriginating from frames of timberhouses which were practicallyd i s i n t eg ra t ed i n to b u i l d ingcomponents. In case of masonryconstruction, walls were shatteredinto pieces of almost equal size.

powerful than the first one, sweptthe coas ta l a rea and causedsignificant catastrophe.

Approximately at 09:15 WIT,the third and most powerful wavehit the coastal area up to a distanceof about 4km inland bringingdestruction along its path. Most ofthe buildings that collapsed werenon-engineered buildings and weresubjected to tsunami forces such asbattering, scouring impact andbuoyancy. After the third wave,Banda Aceh was inundated up to aheight of approximately 2m forabou t 30 to 40 minu tes andsubsequently, water started flowingback to the sea. At around 11:00WIT, the wa te r l eve l wasapproximately 30-40 cm.

The tsunami curse throughoutthe coast

There were two zones affectedby the tsunami: Zone 1 and Zone2. The f irst includes the coastalareas which were destructed by

Reinforced concrete columns wereripped off from the foundations,and beam and column connectionswere severely damaged.

In harbors with deep water, thetsunami wave strength was reducedand t he dominan t f o r ce wasbuoyancy. This was observed atLhok Nga cement factory jetty atUlhue Lhe harbor. The jetty wasprotected by breakwater walls.

The areas closer to the center ofBanda Aceh were damaged byimpact force. This impact force wasexaggerated by the mud densitywhich is larger than that of thewater. It was observed that thetsunami traveled upstream rivers andlagoons and subsequently spilledover the landward areas. It was alsoseen that, in hilly areas, tsunamiwaves run up to much higherelevation along hill slopes andvalleys than those in plain areas,although the strength was less.

The tsunami wave heights were

Inundation height measured from house wall(Banda Aceh, Indonesia)

Inundation height measured from trees(Banda Aceh, Indonesia)

Source of map: OYO International

Sites surveyed Damaged and inundation zones in Banda Aceh

(enlarged map of small marked zone in the left side map)


estimated from measurements ofwater level traces on walls and trees.They were: (a) Meulaboh (WesternCoast), about 4 m, (b) Lhok Nga(West of Banda Aceh), about 15 m(run-up height against hillside), (c)Banda Aceh, about 8m in coastalareas Zone 1 and about 2-3m inZone 2, and (d) Krueng Raya(North coast), about 6m (watermarkon coastal side wall of the Mosque).

“Water, water from the sea”………An early warning

When people saw a huge waveapproaching the coas t , somepeople started shouting, warningthat a f lood was coming, andstarted running towards the centerof the city. However, the people ofcoastal areas were not “trained” toevacuate immediately upon hearingthis “early warning”. Most of themdid no t have any idea tha t atsunami wave could be dangerousto t hem. Due t o t h i s “ea r lywarning”, approximately 30% ofthe coas t a l a r ea popu l a t i onsurvived the tsunami while theother 70% were literally wiped outtogether with their houses. Similar“early warning” procedure wasalso practiced in Meulaboh.

The fate of the cityTwo building types can be

i d e n t i f i e d : a ) E n g i n e e r e dBuildings, and b) Non-EngineeredBuildings.

Engineered buildings consistedmostly of reinforced concretestructures

A l m o s t a l l “ e n g i n e e r e d ”buildings in Banda Aceh wereunaffected by tsunami but some

Kuala Tripa Hotel

People ran to higher ground after the first wave – Banda Aceh.

People ran to higher ground after the first wave – Meulaboh.

also contributed to the collapse ofthose engineered buildings.

Non-Engineered bui ld ingscons is ted of : i ) burnt br ickmasonry with sand and cementmortar, and ii) timber buildings

The majority of the buildingsthat collapsed in Banda Aceh cityand villages in Lhok Nga, KruengRaya, and Meulaboh city were

collapsed due to the shaking of theDec. 26, 2004 earthquake.

The typical cause of damage toreinforced concrete engineeredbuildings in Banda Aceh duringthe Sumatra Earthquake was thever t ica l i r regular i t ies whichcreated abrupt changes in stiffnessand strength that concentratedforces in an undesirable way. Poorquality of concrete and detailing

Office of the Department of Finance

Source: Kompas, 15 January

Source: Korem 012

affected by the shaking or tsunami.However, many distribution polesand wires in the affected areascollapsed. Telecommunicationand Water supply: Though thesewere not very much affected, sometelephone junction boxes andunderground water piping systemwere damaged.

Emergency responses and needsafter the disaster

Righ t a f t e r any d i s a s t e r,i t i s essen t i a l to res to retelecommunications immediately.This makes emergency responseeasier and faster, and reduces panicamong the community.

The challenge of the recoveryis not to repeat mistakes from pastdisasters, among others, how toprevent NGOs, local as well asforeign, from bringing in “alien”materials and products such asknockdown houses which are notcompatible with the local culture.A l l gove r nmen t o ff i c e r s ,community leaders and donors arediscussing recommendations torelocate the destructed villages andalmost all of them are relying onNGOs/donors who have shownwillingness to “adopt” certainvillages. Appropriate planning andanalysis shall be made prior torecommendation for implementingpost earthquake disaster relocation.

Risk to the Indonesian economy It is predicted that the Aceh

tsunami will not have a significanteffect towards the Indonesianeconomy and the 2005 nationalgrowth would be 5-6%. It is also

estimated that the tsunami will notcause negative effects towards theexpectation and risk perception onthe Indonesian economy and willnot disrupt either investment plansor the exchange rate performance.

The last dropIn spite of the fact that the

tsunami most probably will notdisrupt the Indonesian economy,the loss of jobs could be cripplingat the local level. Even though thedamage to agricultural land is only10%, it will take many years tor e c ove r. Fa r m e r s l o s t t h e i rlivestock and equipments. Theaquaculture losses were quitesignificant. Apart from all thosementioned earlier, the tsunami alsoswept and destroyed many roads,bridges, drainage systems, waterp ip ing , e l ec t r i ca l l i nes , andtelecommunication towers. Therepair and rebuilding of those alland the resettlement of displacedpeople will take many years andwill need a considerable amount offund, which may be a substantialpercentage of the country grossdomestic product.

*ICUS Network Memberfrom Indonesia

Note: A comprehensive report onthe damage survey of the 2004Sumatra Ear thquake andTsunami disaster in the IndianOcean Rim countries will soon bepublished as ICUS REPORT2005-01. It can also be obtainedfrom the ICUS webs i te(http://icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/wwwe/publications/index.htm).


n o n - e n g i n e e r e d b u i l d i n g sconsisting of two types. The firsttype was a one or two-storeybuilding made of burnt brickconfined masonry using sand andPortland cement mortar. The roofmostly consisted of galvanized ironsheets. All those buildings usedRC “practical” columns and beamsas confinement. The second typewas timber construction consistingof a timber frame and also timberplanks walls and usually usedgalvanized iron sheets as roof. Thera t i o o f t he se two t ypes o fstructures estimated is to be 30 %to 70 %.

Most of the one to two-storeybuildings collapsed due to thet sunami and no t due t o t heearthquake ground motion thoughit was responsible for the walls tocrack in some places.

The ill fate of infrastructurefacilities

Roads: Most of the main roadsin Zone 1 were covered by hugea m o u n t s o f t s u n a m i d e b r i s .Several parts of the road fromBanda Aceh to Meulaboh werewashed away by the tsunami.Bridges: Several bridges in BandaAceh were destroyed: the one atIskandar Muda area and the otherleading to Lhok Nga. Along ther o a d f r o m B a n d a A c e h t oMeulaboh (distance approx. 270km), several bridges were washedaway. Po r t s : A p a r t o f t h eMeulaboh Port was washed awaybut the supports were still in tact.Power supply: The main powerplant in Banda Aceh was not

Debris and mud at Meulaboh (Zone 2)Lhok Nga (Zone 1)


The World Conference onDisaster Reduction, organized by theUnited Nations International Strategyfor Disaster Reduction (ISDR), washeld in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture,Japan during January 18-22, 2005.The organizational activities of theconference were carried out by theHyogo Cooperation Committee,which was formed for organizing theconference to bring togetheracademics, government officials,representatives of NGOs and otherexperts in the areas of disasterreduction. The Mega conferenceincluded a variety of events duringthe f ive-day period includingintergovernmental meetings, thematicsessions, public fora, workshops,exhibition booths, poster sessions andstudy tours. It drew about 5,000participants from around the worldthat included representatives of 168countries and numerous internationalorganizations.

The conference was composed ofthree main processes: anintergovernmental segment, a thematicsegment for knowledge exchange, anda forum for public participation. TheIntergovernmental segment providedthe venue for delegates to makestatements, discuss and negotiate onthe outcomes of the conference forfinal adoption. The Thematic segmentconsisted of three high-level roundtables; 1) Disaster Risk: The NextDevelopment Challenge, 2) Learningto Live with Risk, 3) Emerging Risks:What will tomorrow hold? and anumber of parallel sessions clusteredunder five themes as well as a regionalsession for exchange of experience

A Report on UN World Conferenceon Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan

Mr. Toshizo Ido, the Governor ofHyogo Prefecture, addresses the

conference participants

Prof. K. Meguro and Dr. D. Duttaduring their keynote presentations

at the UNU Public Forum

and lessons learned from each region. The Open forum included a

number of thematic seminars, openhouse meetings, exhibitions andposter sessions organized by NGOsand the academia.

The conference took place lessthan a month after the catastrophictsunami disaster of the Indian Oceanof December 26, 2004 that claimedover 300,000 lives. It was dominatedby various events and discussionsrelated to tsunami disasters anddevelopment of early warningsystems.

The conference also marked tenyears since the Yokohama conferenceorganized by the United NationsInternational Decade for DisasterReduction (IDNDR) in May 1994,where United Nations member statesdrew up an action plan for a saferworld. The Kobe conference aimed toreview the progress on the plan sincethe Yokohama conference. In theconference, it was deliberated thatalthough much progress had takenplace on the technical front in the lastten years, disaster losses and poverty-based vulnerability were still out ofcontrol. The “Review of theYokohama Strategy and Plan of Actionfor A Safer World” summarized theaccomplishments since the adoption ofthe 1994 document. It noted the gapsand challenges for the future, includingthe need for “more tangiblecommitments” for translatingpromises into action.

In the closing session, thedelegates adopted the “HyogoDeclaration” and the “Hyogo

Framework for Action 2005-2015,”which are aimed at assessing ongoingefforts to lessen the effects of naturalhazards and determining what furtheraction is needed. In the declaration,they emphasize the importance oftranslating the Hyogo Framework forAction into concrete actions to lessenrisks and vulnerabilities to naturalhazards through integrated cooperationand information-sharing mechanisms.The action plan for the upcomingdecade seeks to substantially reducelosses from natural disasters and todevelop an international early warningsystem and a global informationnetwork for that purpose. It also pointsout the need to establish internationalschemes to respond to disasters acrossborders and notes that unplannedurbanization, environmentaldestruction and climate change mayraise disaster risks.

Coordinating disaster mitigationactivities around the world is adaunting task due to various issues,level of priorities, participations,commitments, actions and funds.Through the IDNDR, UN have beensuccessful in raising awareness againstnatural disasters around the world andinformation dissemination through theestablished national committees orfocal points for the decade. However,its limitations in taking leadership inreduction of disaster impacts towards“sustainable development” in mostvulnerable communities around theworld have been witnessed.

At the end of the Kobe conference,it appears that United Nations is upagain in taking the leadership fordisaster reduction worldwide, it isacting fast to see success in its effortsto setting up effective tsunami earlywarning systems around the world.But the task of coordinating andintegrating efforts to enable allcountries at risk to minimize lossesfrom natural disasters is likely to be acomplex and difficult one. The worldwill watch carefully how the words of“Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015” are translated into action in thecoming decade to build resilience ofnations and communities to disasters.

(by D. Dutta)

of Special Fire ResearchGroup, National ResearchIns t i tu te o f Fire andDisaster: “Investigation ofSpec ia l Fire cases andlessons learnt”.

3. Mr. Katsumi Seki, Director,Cons truc t ion PlanningDivision, Policy Bureau,Ministry of Land Infra-structure and Transport:“Emergency Managementfor Disaster Reduction – Afield perspective”.

4. Prof. Masamitsu Tamura,Professor Emeritus, TheUniversity of Tokyo, GuestProfessor o f Yokohama

ICUS has signed a Memorandumof Understanding (MOU) withNational University of Singapore(NUS) and Nanyang TechnologicalUniversity (NTU) to collaborate inresearch and other academicactivities in the field of Urban andSafety Engineering on March 28 and29, 2005, respectively.

These universities will be hostingthe Fourth International Symposiumon “New Technologies for UrbanSafety of Mega Cities in Asia”

page 6


On October 18-19, 2005, the4th International Symposium onNew Technologies for Urban Safetyof Mega Cities in Asia will be helda t Nanyang Technologica lUniversity in Singapore. Prof. Pan

Tso-Chien, Professor of NanyangTechnological University will behos t ing th i s symposium( T C Pa n @ p m a i l . n t u . e d u . s g ) .Application of registration andsubmission will start soon. Further

The 4th International Symposium on “New Technologies for Urban Safetyof Mega Cities in Asia” on October 18-19, 2005

ICUS Signed MOU with NUS and NTU, Singapore

The 8th ICUS Open Lecture washeld at IIS in the afternoon ofFebruary 28th, 2005. The title of thelecture was “Messages from theDisaster Scene”. About 100 peopleattended the lecture. There werefour speakers, Mr. Shogo Hayashi,Dr. Takashi Tsuruda, Mr. KatsumiSeki and Prof. Masamitsu Tamura.

The TOPICS were as follows:1 . M r. S h ogo H a y a s h i ,

Commissioner, Fire andDisas ter ManagementAgency (FDMA): “FDMA’sactivities towards large-scaledisasters in Japan during2004 and it’s future issues”.

2. Dr. Takashi Tsuruda, Leader

Nat ional Univers i ty :“Recent safety problems andpotential issues in the 21st

Century”.Finally Professor Taketo Uomoto

of ICUS made concluding remarkson this Open Lecture and expressedgratitude to the participants.

ICUS Activity Records

details can be obtained from theWeb s i tes l i s ted be low.h t t p : / / i c u s . i i s . u -t o k y o . a c . j p / i s u s 0 5 / a n dh t tp : / /www.n tu . edu . sg /p t r c /USMCA2005.

・Prof. Uomoto and Prof. Megurovisited Nanyang TechnologicalUnivers i ty and Nat ionalUniversity of Singapore, Singaporeto s ign a Memorandum ofUnderstanding (March 27-30).・Prof. Meguro carried out Sumatra

Earthquake and Tsunami disasterinvestigation in Sri Lanka (Feb. 17-25) and in Thailand (March 9-13).・Prof. Ooka attended the “ASHRAE

Winter Meeting” at Orland, USA.

(Feb. 5-11), and “Geo Exchangemeeting” at Vancouver, Canada(March 16-19), and the “Annualmeeting on AGS” at Boston, USA.(March 20-24).・Prof. Dutta visited AIT, Thailand

for collaborative research atRNUS (Jan. 22-March 30), andattended the “Map India 2005International Conference” atDelhi, India (Feb. 7-9). He alsoparticipated in field survey and

meeting in Guwahati towardsdeveloping a project on urbanf lood r isk management a tGuwahati, India (Feb. 10-12).・Dr. Susaki visited AIT, Thailand

as a JICA expert of remote sensing(Feb. 1-Jan. 31, 2007).・Dr. Endo visited Thailand for

research on forest fire in HauyKha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary(March 13-17).

The 8th ICUS Open Lecture

National University of Singapore Nanyang Technological University


In recent years, developmentactivities and research surroundingAs ian in t e r na t iona l r ive r s ,especially the Mekong River hasexpanded. Yet, many efforts in thedownstream are disconnected fromthose in the upstream and viceversa. These communications gapsseriously hamper improving theunderstanding of basin hydrologyand forecasting its future status. Toimprove regional cooperation andf ac i l i t a t e d i scuss ion amongscientif ic community in ripariancountries who share interest andincen t ive to unde r s t and oneanother's views, United NationsUniversity (UNU) organized thesymposium on “Role of WaterSciences in Transboundary RiverBasin Management” together withthe Asian Institute of Technology(AIT) and Thammasat Universityduring March 10-12, 2005 in UbonRatchathani, Thailand.

The sympos ium was anacademic meeting that served as avenue for information exchangeamong t r ansboundar y wa te rstakeholders working on Asia’s

international rivers. The focali ssues of the meet ing were :1) Modeling and Monitoring,2) Stakeholder Par ticipation,3) Transboundary Cooperation and4) Scientif ic Networking.

The sympos ium b rough ttogether over 50 water profes-sionals and academicians from 12countries to share their experienceand knowledge in various casestudies particular to their basins,emphasizing both risks and paths tocooperation.

The two-day technical programof the symposium included sixtechnical sessions organized underthe four focal issues of the meeting.A total of 31 papers were presentedin these sessions. After the sixtechnical sessions, a special sessionwas held to d iscuss researchcooperation on transboundary riverbasin management with specialfocus on Mekong River Basin.

On the finalday, a field trip wasorganized to visit the Khong PhaPeng waterfall, located in the Laos

Part of the Mekong River and closeto the Cambodian border, where theMekong r ive r s lopes s t eepdownwards over a 20km stretch tocreate a 30 m head and waterpassage is separated into narrowstrips by numerous rocky islands.

The symposium was successfulin es tabl i sh ing a ne twork o fresearchers for future scientif iccooperation on transboundary riverbasin management. The next eventfor fo l low-up ac i t iv i t ies i s abrainstorming session going to behe ld a t AIT in June 2005 tofor mula te an ac t ion p lan forresearch and development.

The secretariat for organi-za t iona l ac t iv i t i e s o f t hesymposium was hosted by theRegional Network Office for UrbanSafety (RNUS) of ICUS/AIT andDr. D. Dutta, the Coordinator ofRNUS, acted as the Secretary ofthe Organizing Committee. Thosewho are interested to obtain a set ofthe symposium proceedings canwrite to the Symposium Secretariatat [email protected].

RNUS hosted the Secretariat of the InternationalSymposium on Transboundary River Basin Management

organized by UNU, AIT and Thammasat University

Participants of the symposium held at the Tohsaeng Khong Jiem Resort, Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand, March 10, 2005

(3)Urban energy problemsrelated to environmentalcontrol

(1) and (2) have been conductedas an academic activity in ICUS.

Some students have graduatedin these four years under myguidance.

As cooperation work with thesestudents, a number of researchresults for the above-mentioned (1)-(3) have been achieved in these fouryears.

In the days to come, I will beinforming these results through ICUS.

ICUS is able to offer a meetingvenue for researchers coming fromvarious countries around the world.

Personally speaking, I hadopportunities to visit many countriesthrough ICUS.

I am looking forward to meetingand working with people who areinterested in my research.

(by R. Ooka)

International Center for

Urban Safety Engineering

International Center for Urban Safety Engineering, ICUSInstitute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, JapanTel: (+81-3)5452-6472, Fax: (+81-3)5452-6476E-mail:[email protected]://icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

Editor’s Note

Four years have passed since Ibecame a member of ICUS.Meanwhile, the lineup of ICUShad been established.

A large number of activitieshave been done. The results havebeen accumulated. However, thespeed at which I am writing mymanuscript is slow as usual. Thereason though is not known.

The three main researchsubjects I am dealing with are

(1)Urban environmentalproblems that are related toatmospheric environment,

(2)Urban safety problemsrelated to fire, and

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