Indonesia is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world. For 10 years the Australian and Indonesian governments, science agencies and universities, have partnered to strengthen disaster management in Indonesia. Working together on science, technology and policy has greatly improved decision making around disaster management in Indonesia. By helping people prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters, more lives can be saved, impacts on the most vulnerable members of society reduced, and infrastructure can be protected. Our partnership has concentrated on strengthening the evidence base for formed disaster management by improving: 1) hazard information for earthquake, tsunami, volcano and flood 2) spatial data for exposure (population, building, roads and infrastructure) 3) decision support tool (InaSAFE) to inform disaster response and management decisions. This document outlines the highlights of the Indonesian-Australian collaboration on the use of science and technology in disaster management.

Along the Aceh-Andaman subduction zone, there was no historical precedent for an event the size of the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman tsunami; therefore, neither the countries affected by the tsunami nor their neighbours were adequately prepared for the disaster. By studying the geological signatures of past tsunamis, the record may be extended by thousands of years, leading to a better understanding of tsunami frequency and magnitude. Sedimentary evidence for the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman tsunami and three predecessor great Holocene tsunamis is preserved on a beach ridge plain on Phra Thong Island, Thailand. Optically stimulated luminescence ages were obtained from tsunami-laid sediment sheets and surrounding morphostratigraphic units. Single-grain results from the 2004 sediment sheet show sizable proportions of near-zero grains, suggesting that the majority of sediment was well-bleached prior to tsunami entrainment or that the sediment was bleached during transport. However, a minimum-age model needed to be applied in order to obtain a near-zero luminescence age for the 2004 tsunami deposit as residual ages were found in a small population of grains. This demonstrates the importance of considering partial bleaching in water-transported sediments. The OSL results from the predecessor tsunami deposits and underlying tidal flat sands show good agreement with paired radiocarbon ages and constrain the average recurrence of large late Holocene tsunami on the western Thai coast to between 500 to 1000 years. This is the first large-scale application of luminescence dating to gain recurrence estimates for large Indian Ocean tsunami. These results increase confidence in the use of OSL to date tsunami-laid sediments, providing an additional tool to tsunami geologists when material for radiocarbon dating is unavailable. Through an understanding of the frequency of past tsunami, OSL dating of tsunami deposits can improve our understanding of tsunami hazard and provide a means of assessing fu

We present the first national probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment (PTHA) for Indonesia. This assessment considers tsunami generated from near-field earthquakes sources around Indonesia as well as regional and far-field sources, to define the tsunami hazard at the coastline. The PTHA methodology is based on the established stochastic event-based approach to probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA) and has been adapted to tsunami. The earthquake source information is primarily based on the recent Indonesian National Seismic Hazard Map and included a consensus-workshop with Indonesia's leading tsunami and earthquake scientists to finalize the seismic source models and logic trees to include epistemic uncertainty. Results are presented in the form of tsunami hazard maps showing the expected tsunami height at the coast for a given return period, and also as tsunami probability maps, showing the probability of exceeding a tsunami height of 0.5m and 3.0m at the coast. These heights define the thresholds for different tsunami warning levels in the Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System (Ina-TEWS). The results show that for short return periods (100 years) the highest tsunami hazard is the west coast of Sumatra, the islands of Nias and Mentawai. For longer return periods (>500 years), the tsunami hazard in Eastern Indonesia (north Papua, north Sulawesi) is nearly as high as that along the Sunda Arc. A sensitivity analysis of input parameters is conducted by sampling branches of the logic tree using a monte-carlo approach to constrain the relative importance of each input parameter. These results can be used to underpin evidence-based decision making by disaster managers to prioritize tsunami mitigation such as developing detailed inundation simulations for evacuation planning.

The aim of this document is to provide the Attorney General's Department (AGD) with an assessment of the nearshore tsunami hazard for Australia. This assessment is one of the tsunami capacity building initiatives of the AGD to support the tsunami planning and preparation initiatives of the States and Territories. It follows the national deep water probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment completed in 2008 [1] that showed that Western Australia has the highest offshore hazard, the east coast of Australia has a moderate offshore hazard, while the smallest hazard can be found off Australia's southern coast. The intent of this nearshore assessment is to add interpretative value to the deep water assessment by estimating the amplification factor that can be applied to convert the deep water hazard to the nearshore tsunami hazard at a number of Australian communities. Further, the deep water assessment did not provide data for most of Victoria, Northern Territory, the west coast of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, or the north coast of Tasmania due to the shallow water of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and the Torres and Bass Straits. Therefore, this nearshore assessment provides these areas with a tsunami hazard assessment for the first time

This relates to the release of ANUGA as open-source software. No abstract required. See http://sourceforge.net/projects/anuga/

The Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre (JATWC) was established in response to the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. The JATWC is a collaboration between Geoscince Australia and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology to provide tsunami warnings to the Australian public. This arcticle discusses the actions of the JATWC in response to the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that occurred south of New Zealand on the September 30, 2007. This earthquake generated a tsunami and a potential threat warning was issued for the Australian south east coast. The methods used to analyse the earthquake and the tsunami are examined as well as the future direction of operational capabilities in terms of tsunami modelling.

The report summarises earthquake and tsunami information worldwide in 1998 but with a focus on Australia for use by scientists, engineers and the public. Maps of the seismicity are presented on a state-by-state basis and isoseismal maps are included for the significant earthquakes.

The information within this document and associated DVD is intended to assist emergency managers in tsunami planning and preparation activities. The Attorney General's Department (AGD) has supported Geoscience Australia (GA) in developing a range of products to support the understanding of tsunami hazard through the Australian Tsunami Warning System Project. The work reported here is intended to further build the capacity of the QLD State Government in developing inundation models for prioritised locations. Internally stored data /nas/cds/internal/hazard_events/sudden_onset_hazards/tsunami_inundation/gold_coast/gold_coast_tsunami_scenario_2009

Animation of earthquake generated tsunami created in 3D Studio Max for the Risk Research Group.

The aim of this document is to: * outline the general process adopted by Geoscience Australia in modelling tsunami inundation for a range of projects conducted in collaboration with Australian and State Government emergency management agencies * allow discoverability of all data used to generate the products for the collaborative projects as well as internal activities.