Mitigation of Georisk

Background
Due to its geographical position Indonesia is an area that is highly vulnerable to natural disasters such as earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. Such disasters need to be handled immediately, accurately, integrated and coordinated through appropriate prevention, rescue, rehabilition and reconstruction efforts.The Indonesian process of decentralisation led to the strengthening of local governments, placing the responsibility for disaster management on provincial and subprovincial level. Consequently, national agencies have to provide advocacy for the establishment of local georisk management.

The Geological Agency of Indonesia (Badan Geologi) as part of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of the Republic of Indonesia and BGR (German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources) set up a joint project to develop and test practical georisk assessment methodologies and to support the implementation of findings in national, provincial and local risk mitigation strategies. Referring to the disaster management cycle the project’s focus clearly lies on the pre-disaster segment.