ICUS NEWSLETTER
International Center for Urban Safety Engineering

Institute of Industrial Science
The University of Tokyo

VOLUME 4 NUMBER 4
JANUARY-MARCH 2005

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

SUMATRA EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI,
26 DECEMBER 2004
By
Teddy BOEN*
On December 26, 2004, a great earthquake of M9.0, followed by a devastating tsunami struck the Indian
Ocean 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 since
1900, sending a wave of shock, and drawing sympathy and assistance offers from across the world. In
Indonesia, over 200 thousand people were killed and 700,000 were displaced. This was the worst natural
disaster experienced in its history in which Banda Aceh and North Sumatra suffered the most. This
article is a quick survey report giving the overall information on damages to the engineered and nonengineered buildings with a touch to infrastructure damages in Indonesia.
On Sunday morning Dec 26,
2004, Banda Aceh was holding a
10km marathon and someparticipants had already reached thefinishing line. At 07:58:50 WIT(Western Indonesia Time), the earth
was struck by a strong earthquake ofM9.0. Almost everybody panicked
and lay down on the ground. Afterthe shaking stopped, people
wandered watching some collapsedbuildings in the city. A TV reportereven toured the city to checkdamaged and collapsed buildings. At

around 08:42 WIT, the first tsunami
wave reached the coastlines of Banda
Aceh and some people started
shouting: “water, water from thesea”. Many people started runningtowards the city center. At around
08:53 WIT, a second wave, more

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

page 2

Source of map: OYO International

Sites surveyed
powerful than the first one, swept
the coastal area and caused
significant catastrophe.
Approximately at 09:15 WIT,
the third and most powerful wave
hit the coastal area up to a distanceof about 4km inland bringing
destruction along its path. Most of
the buildings that collapsed were
non-engineered buildings and were
subjected to tsunami forces such asbattering, scouring impact andbuoyancy. After the third wave,
Banda Aceh was inundated up to aheight of approximately 2m forabout 30 to 40 minutes andsubsequently, water started flowing
back to the sea. At around 11:00
W I T, t h e wa t e r l ev e l wa s
approximately 30-40 cm.
The tsunami curse throughout
the coast
There were two zones affectedby the tsunami: Zone 1 and Zone
2. The first includes the coastal
areas which were destructed bytsunami forces such as battering,scouring, impact and buoyancy. In
Banda Aceh, this zone goes up to
3 k m i n l a n d . Z o n e 2 wa s t h einundated part, where the tsunami
force was reduced but the wave
caused flooding, dumping mud anddebris.
This
area
was
approximately 0.5 to 1.5km further
inland.
Disaster episodes
along the tsunami waves
In areas where the beach isgently sloped, the tsunami waves
were very powerful and this isevident in places like: Lhok Nga,
Ulhue Lhe, Kr ueng Raya andMeulaboh. The damage wasmostly by the battering andscouring forces of the tsunami.
This was observed from the debris
originating from frames of timberhouses which were practicallydisintegrated into building
components. In case of masonry
construction, walls were shatteredinto pieces of almost equal size.

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

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 4

Damaged and inundation zones in Banda Aceh(enlarged map of small marked zone in the left side map)
Reinforced concrete columns wereripped off from the foundations,and beam and column connections
were severely damaged.
In harbors with deep water, thetsunami wave strength was reduced
and the dominant force wasbuoyancy. This was observed at
Lhok Nga cement factory jetty at
Ulhue Lhe harbor. The jetty wasprotected by breakwater walls.
The areas closer to the center ofBanda Aceh were damaged by
impact force. This impact force was
exaggerated by the mud density
which is larger than that of thewater. It was observed that thetsunami traveled upstream rivers andlagoons and subsequently spilledover the landward areas. It was also
seen that, in hilly areas, tsunami
waves r un up to much higher
elevation along hill slopes andvalleys than those in plain areas,
although the strength was less.
The tsunami wave heights were

Inundation height measured from trees(Banda Aceh, Indonesia)

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estimated from measurements ofwater level traces on walls and trees.
They were: (a) Meulaboh (Western
Coast), about 4 m, (b) Lhok Nga(West of Banda Aceh), about 15 m
(run-up height against hillside), (c)Banda Aceh, about 8m in coastal
areas Zone 1 and about 2-3m inZone 2, and (d) Kr ueng Raya
(North coast), about 6m (watermark
on coastal side wall of the Mosque).
“Water, water from the sea”………An early warning
When people saw a huge wave
approaching the coast, somepeople started shouting, warningthat a flood was coming, andstarted running towards the centerof the city. However, the people ofcoastal areas were not “trained” toevacuate immediately upon hearing
this “early warning”. Most of themd i d n o t h av e a ny i d e a t h a t atsunami wave could be dangerous
to them. Due to this “early
warning”, approximately 30% of
the coastal area population
survived the tsunami while theother 70% were literally wiped out
together with their houses. Similar“early warning” procedure wasalso practiced in Meulaboh.

Source: Kompas, 15 January

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

Source: Korem 012

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

The fate of the city
Two building types can be collapsed due to the shaking of thei d e n t i f i e d : a ) E n g i n e e r e d Dec. 26, 2004 earthquake.
Buildings, and b) Non-Engineered
Buildings.
The typical cause of damage toreinforced concrete engineered
Engineered buildings consisted buildings in Banda Aceh duringmostly of reinforced concrete the Sumatra Earthquake was the
structuresve r t i c a l i r r eg u l a r i t i e s wh i c hcreated abrupt changes in stiffness
A l m o s t a l l “ e n g i n e e r e d ” and strength that concentrated
buildings in Banda Aceh were forces in an undesirable way. Poor
unaffected by tsunami but some quality of concrete and detailing

Kuala Tripa Hotelalso contributed to the collapse of
those engineered buildings.
N o n - E n g i n e e re d bu i l d i n g s
c o n s i s t e d o f : i ) bu r n t b r i c kmasonry with sand and cement
mortar, and ii) timber buildings
The majority of the buildingsthat collapsed in Banda Aceh cityand villages in Lhok Nga, Krueng
Raya, and Meulaboh city were

Office of the Department of Finance

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 4

page 4

Lhok Nga (Zone 1)
non-engineered buildings
consisting of two types. The first
type was a one or two-storey
building made of bur nt brickconfined masonry using sand andPortland cement mortar. The roof
mostly consisted of galvanized ironsheets. All those buildings used
RC “practical” columns and beams
as confinement. The second type
was timber construction consistingof a timber frame and also timberplanks walls and usually usedgalvanized iron sheets as roof. Ther a t i o o f t h e s e t wo t y p e s o f
structures estimated is to be 30 %to 70 %.
Most of the one to two-storey
buildings collapsed due to thetsunami and not due to theearthquake ground motion though
it was responsible for the walls to
crack in some places.
The ill fate of infrastructure
facilities
Roads: Most of the main roads
in Zone 1 were covered by hugeamounts of tsunami debris.
Several parts of the road from
Banda Aceh to Meulaboh were
washed away by the tsunami.
Bridges: Several bridges in Banda
Aceh were destroyed: the one at
Iskandar Muda area and the otherleading to Lhok Nga. Along theroad from Banda Aceh to
Meulaboh (distance approx. 270km), several bridges were washedaw ay. Po r t s : A p a r t o f t h e
Meulaboh Port was washed away
but the supports were still in tact.
Power supply: The main power
plant in Banda Aceh was not

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 4

Debris and mud at Meulaboh (Zone 2)
affected by the shaking or tsunami.
However, many distribution poles
and wires in the affected areas
collapsed. Telecommunicationand Water supply: Though thesewere not very much affected, some
telephone junction boxes andunderground water piping systemwere damaged.
Emergency responses and needs
after the disasterR i g h t a f t e r a n y d i s a s t e r,
it is essential to restore
telecommunications immediately.
This makes emergency responseeasier and faster, and reduces panic
among the community.
The challenge of the recovery
is not to repeat mistakes from pastdisasters, among others, how toprevent NGOs, local as well as
foreign, from bringing in “alien”
materials and products such as
knockdown houses which are notcompatible with the local culture.
A l l g ov e r n m e n t o f f i c e r s ,community leaders and donors are
discussing recommendations to
relocate the destructed villages andalmost all of them are relying on
NGOs/donors who have shownwillingness to “adopt” certain
villages. Appropriate planning andanalysis shall be made prior torecommendation for implementing
post earthquake disaster relocation.
Risk to the Indonesian economy
It is predicted that the Acehtsunami will not have a significant
effect towards the Indonesian
economy and the 2005 national
growth would be 5-6%. It is also

estimated that the tsunami will notcause negative effects towards the
expectation and risk perception on
the Indonesian economy and will
not disrupt either investment plansor the exchange rate performance.
The last drop
In spite of the fact that thetsunami most probably will not
disrupt the Indonesian economy,
the loss of jobs could be cripplingat the local level. Even though thedamage to agricultural land is only
10%, it will take many years to
r e c ov e r. Fa r m e r s l o s t t h e i r
livestock and equipments. The
aquaculture losses were quite
significant. Apart from all thosementioned earlier, the tsunami also
swept and destroyed many roads,
bridges, drainage systems, water
piping, electrical lines, andtelecommunication towers. The
repair and rebuilding of those all
and the resettlement of displaced
people will take many years andwill need a considerable amount offund, which may be a substantial
percentage of the country grossdomestic product.
*ICUS Network Member
from Indonesia
Note: A comprehensive report on
the damage survey of the 2004
S u m a t ra E a r t h q u a k e a n d
Tsunami disaster in the Indian
Ocean Rim countries will soon be
published as ICUS REPORT
2005-01. It can also be obtained
f ro m t h e I C U S we b s i t e(http://icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/
wwwe/publications/index.htm).

page 5

A Report on UN World Conference
on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan
The World Conference on
Disaster Reduction, organized by theUnited Nations International Strategy
for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), washeld in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture,
Japan during January 18-22, 2005.
The organizational activities of theconference were carried out by the
Hyogo Cooperation Committee,
which was formed for organizing theconference to bring together
academics, government officials,
representatives of NGOs and otherexperts in the areas of disaster
reduction. The Mega conference
included a variety of events during
the f ive-day period includingintergovernmental meetings, thematic
sessions, public fora, workshops,
exhibition booths, poster sessions andstudy tours. It drew about 5,000
participants from around the worldthat included representatives of 168
countries and numerous internationalorganizations.
The conference was composed ofthree main processes: anintergovernmental segment, a thematic
segment for knowledge exchange, anda forum for public participation. The
Intergovernmental segment provided
the venue for delegates to makestatements, discuss and negotiate on
the outcomes of the conference forfinal adoption. The Thematic segment
consisted of three high-level roundtables; 1) Disaster Risk: The Next
Development Challenge, 2) Learning
to 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

Prof. K. Meguro and Dr. D. Dutta
during their keynote presentations
at the UNU Public Forum

Mr. Toshizo Ido, the Governor of
Hyogo Prefecture, addresses theconference participants
and lessons learned from each region.
The Open forum included anumber of thematic seminars, open
house meetings, exhibitions andposter sessions organized by NGOs
and the academia.
The conference took place lessthan a month after the catastrophic
tsunami disaster of the Indian Oceanof December 26, 2004 that claimed
over 300,000 lives. It was dominatedby various events and discussions
related to tsunami disasters anddevelopment of early warning
systems.
The conference also marked ten
years since the Yokohama conference
organized by the United Nations
International Decade for Disaster
Reduction (IDNDR) in May 1994,
where United Nations member statesdrew up an action plan for a safer
world. The Kobe conference aimed toreview the progress on the plan since
the Yokohama conference. In theconference, it was deliberated that
although much progress had takenplace on the technical front in the lastten years, disaster losses and povertybased vulnerability were still out ofcontrol. The “Review of the
Yokohama Strategy and Plan of Action
for A Safer World” summarized theaccomplishments since the adoption of
the 1994 document. It noted the gaps
and challenges for the future, including
the need for “more tangible
commitments” for translatingpromises into action.
In the closing session, thedelegates adopted the “Hyogo
Declaration” and the “Hyogo

Framework for Action 2005-2015,”
which are aimed at assessing ongoing
efforts to lessen the effects of natural
hazards and determining what further
action is needed. In the declaration,
they emphasize the importance oftranslating the Hyogo Framework for
Action into concrete actions to lessen
risks and vulnerabilities to natural
hazards through integrated cooperationand information-sharing mechanisms.
The action plan for the upcoming
decade seeks to substantially reduce
losses from natural disasters and todevelop an international early warning
system and a global information
network for that purpose. It also points
out the need to establish international
schemes to respond to disasters acrossborders and notes that unplanned
urbanization, environmental
destruction and climate change may
raise disaster risks.
Coordinating disaster mitigation
activities 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 against
natural disasters around the world andinformation dissemination through theestablished national committees or
focal points for the decade. However,its limitations in taking leadership in
reduction 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 up
again in taking the leadership fordisaster reduction worldwide, it isacting fast to see success in its efforts
to setting up effective tsunami early
warning systems around the world.
But the task of coordinating andintegrating efforts to enable allcountries at risk to minimize losses
from natural disasters is likely to be acomplex and difficult one. The world
will watch carefully how the words of“Hyogo Framework for Action 20052015” are translated into action in the
coming decade to build resilience ofnations and communities to disasters.
(by D. Dutta)

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 4

page 6

ICUS Signed MOU with NUS and NTU, Singapore
ICUS has signed a Memorandumof Understanding (MOU) with
National University of Singapore(NUS) and Nanyang Technological
University (NTU) to collaborate inresearch and other academic
activities in the field of Urban and
Safety Engineering on March 28 and29, 2005, respectively.
These universities will be hosting
the Fourth International Symposium
on “New Technologies for Urban
Safety of Mega Cities in Asia”

National University of Singapore

Nanyang Technological University

The 8th ICUS Open Lecture
The 8th ICUS Open Lecture washeld at IIS in the afternoon of
February 28th, 2005. The title of thelecture was “Messages from theDisaster Scene”. About 100 people
attended the lecture. There werefour speakers, Mr. Shogo Hayashi,
Dr. Takashi Tsuruda, Mr. Katsumi
Seki and Prof. Masamitsu Tamura.
The TOPICS were as follows:
1 . M r. S h o g o H a y a s h i ,Commissioner, Fire andD i s a s t e r M a n ag e m e n t
Agency (FDMA): “FDMA’s
activities towards large-scaledisasters in Japan during
2004 and it’s future issues”.
2. Dr. Takashi Tsuruda, Leaderof Special Fire ResearchGroup, National Research
I n s t i t u t e o f Fi re a n dDisaster: “Investigation of
S p e c i a l Fi re c a s e s a n dlessons learnt”.
3. Mr. Katsumi Seki, Director,
Construction Planning
Division, Policy Bureau,
Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport:“Emergency Managementfor Disaster Reduction – A
field perspective”.
4. Prof. Masamitsu Tamura,
Professor Emeritus, The
University of Tokyo, Guest
P ro fe s s o r o f Yo k o h a m a

National University:“Recent safety problems andpotential issues in the 21stCentury”.
Finally Professor Taketo Uomoto
of ICUS made concluding remarkson this Open Lecture and expressedgratitude to the participants.

The 4th International Symposium on “New Technologies for Urban Safetyof Mega Cities in Asia” on October 18-19, 2005
On October 18-19, 2005, the
4th International Symposium on
New Technologies for Urban Safetyof Mega Cities in Asia will be helda t N a ny a n g Te c h n o l og i c a l
University in Singapore. Prof. Pan

Tso-Chien, Professor of Nanyang
Technological University will behosting
this
symposium(TCPan@pmail.ntu.edu.sg).
Application of registration andsubmission will start soon. Further

details can be obtained from theWe b s i t e s l i s t e d b e l ow.
h t t p : / / i c u s . i i s . u tokyo.ac.jp/isus05/ a n d
h t t p : / / w w w. n t u . e d u . s g / p t r c /USMCA2005.

ICUS Activity Records
・Prof. Uomoto and Prof. Meguro
visited Nanyang TechnologicalU n i v e rs i t y a n d N a t i o n a l
University of Singapore, Singaporet o s i g n a M e m o ra n d u m o f
Understanding (March 27-30).
・Prof. Meguro carried out Sumatra
Earthquake and Tsunami disaster
investigation in Sri Lanka (Feb. 1725) and in Thailand (March 9-13).
・Prof. Ooka attended the “ASHRAE
Winter Meeting” at Orland, USA.

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 4(Feb. 5-11), and “Geo Exchange
meeting” at Vancouver, Canada(March 16-19), and the “Annual
meeting on AGS” at Boston, USA.
(March 20-24).
・Prof. Dutta visited AIT, Thailand
for collaborative research at
RNUS (Jan. 22-March 30), andattended the “Map India 2005
International Conference” at
Delhi, India (Feb. 7-9). He also
participated in field survey andmeeting in Guwahati towards
developing a project on urban
f l o o d r i s k m a n age m e n t a t
Guwahati, 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 forresearch on forest fire in Hauy
Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary(March 13-17).

page 7

RNUS hosted the Secretariat of the International
Symposium on Transboundary River Basin Management
organized by UNU, AIT and Thammasat University
In recent years, development
activities and research surroundingA s i a n i n t e r n a t i o n a l r iv e r s ,especially the Mekong River has
expanded. Yet, many efforts in thedownstream are disconnected fromthose in the upstream and viceversa. These communications gaps
seriously hamper improving theunderstanding of basin hydrology
and forecasting its future status. To
improve regional cooperation andfacilitate discussion amongscientific community in riparian
countries who share interest andi n c e n t iv e t o u n d e r s t a n d o n eanother's views, United Nations
University (UNU) organized thesymposium on “Role of Water
Sciences in Transboundary River
Basin Management” together with
the Asian Institute of Technology(AIT) and Thammasat University
during March 10-12, 2005 in Ubon
Ratchathani, Thailand.
T h e s y m p o s i u m wa s a n
academic meeting that served as avenue for information exchangea m o n g t r a n s b o u n d a r y wa t e r
stakeholders working on Asia’sinternational rivers. The focal
i s s u e s o f t h e m e e t i n g we r e :1) Modeling and Monitoring,2) Stakeholder Par ticipation,3) Transboundary Cooperation and
4) Scientif ic Networking.

Part of the Mekong River and close
to the Cambodian border, where theM e k o n g r iv e r s l o p e s s t e e p
downwards over a 20km stretch tocreate a 30 m head and water
passage is separated into narrow
strips by numerous rocky islands.

The symposium brought
together over 50 water professionals and academicians from 12
countries to share their experienceand knowledge in various casestudies particular to their basins,emphasizing both risks and paths tocooperation.

The symposium was successful
i n e s t a bl i s h i n g a n e t wo r k o fresearchers for future scientif ic
cooperation on transboundary river
basin management. The next eventf o r f o l l ow - u p a c i t iv i t i e s i s abrainstorming session going to beheld at AIT in June 2005 to
The two-day technical program f o r m u l a t e a n a c t i o n p l a n f o rof the symposium included six research and development.
technical sessions organized under
the four focal issues of the meeting.
The secretariat for organiA total of 31 papers were presented z a t i o n a l a c t iv i t i e s o f t h e
in these sessions. After the six symposium was hosted by thetechnical sessions, a special session Regional Network Office for Urban
wa s h e l d t o d i s c u s s r e s e a r c h Safety (RNUS) of ICUS/AIT andcooperation on transboundary river Dr. D. Dutta, the Coordinator ofbasin management with special RNUS, acted as the Secretary offocus on Mekong River Basin.
the Organizing Committee. Those
who are interested to obtain a set of
On the finalday, a field trip was the symposium proceedings canorganized to visit the Khong Pha write to the Symposium Secretariat
Peng waterfall, located in the Laos at rnus@ait.ac.th.

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

ICUS Newsletter Vol. 4, No. 4

page 8
Editor’s Note
Four years have passed since I
became a member of ICUS.
Meanwhile, the lineup of ICUS
had been established.
A large number of activities
have been done. The results havebeen accumulated. However, thespeed at which I am writing mymanuscript is slow as usual. The
reason though is not known.
T h e t h re e m a i n re s e a rch
subjects I am dealing with are( 1 ) U r b a n e nv i ro n m e n t a l
problems that are related toatmospheric environment,(2)Urban safety problems
related to fire, and(3)Urban energ y problems
related to environmental
control(1) and (2) have been conducted
as an academic activity in ICUS.
Some students have graduatedin these four years under myguidance.
As cooperation work with thesestudents, a number of research
results for the above-mentioned (1)(3) have been achieved in these four
years.
In the days to come, I will be
informing these results through ICUS.
ICUS is able to offer a meetingvenue for researchers coming fromvarious countries around the world.

International Center for Urban Safety Engineering, ICUS
Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo
4-6-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan
Tel: (+81-3)5452-6472, Fax: (+81-3)5452-6476
E-mail:icus@iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
http://icus.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

International Center for
Urban Safety Engineering

Personally speaking, I had
opportunities to visit many countries
through ICUS.
I am looking forward to meeting
and working with people who areinterested in my research.
(by R. Ooka)

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