Earthquake in Indonesia

Indonesia is a prone disaster country due to its geographic location. Situated near the tectonics plate, it is not surprising that the country has to deal with the imminent risk of volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, earthquake, landslide and floods. In the last two weeks, for instance, three earthquakes hit the tourist Island of Lombok. The Indonesian National Disaster Mitigation Agency reported that Lombok was shacked by 6.2 to 7.0 Richter scale quakes where hundreds of people died ande the entire population was evacuated to the higher places. In addition, major earthquakes also happened in several areas in Indonesia such as Aceh 2004 & 2012,Yogyakarta 2006, and Medan 2010.

Due to the high frequency of disaster, Indonesia needs to take into the account the structural engineering and social issues to plan and design of its cities. Several measures can be taken by the government in order to mitigate and anticipate the risk associated with commonly occurring disasters such as building an early warning system, using lightweight concrete and materials in the construction of various building, conducting earthquake simulation in schools in order to inform the society about what should they do when earthquake happen, and investing in the reservation of mangrove forests and other artificial barrier such as sea wall in tsunami-prone areas. Also, urban landscape plays an important role in organizing and providing evacuation room such as park and other open space. Thus, government play a central role in reducing the number of casualties in times of disaster.