Disaster preparedness collaboration between Banda Aceh and Japan

Abstract As a disaster-prone area, the city of Banda Aceh was one of the locations that experienced an earthquake and tsunami that destroyed parts of the city at the end of 2004. An earthquake with a magnitude of 9.3 SR accompanied by a tsunami resulted in almost half of the settlement area of Banda Aceh being severely damaged. After destroyed by the biggest earthquake in Indonesia in the past few decades, the city of Banda Aceh has now recovered and is preparing itself as a city that is alert to disasters. The city recovery process has proceeded relatively quickly, and this has influenced the enthusiasm of citizens to be involved in working with various domestic and foreign institutions that helped build Aceh post-disaster. One of the countries that have collaborated with the Banda Aceh city government in disaster preparedness is the Japanese government. The collaboration was manifested in the form of sharing experiences, training, and discussions on disaster mitigation in the construction of the city of Banda Aceh as a sustainable city that is disaster prepared. With the openness of the city government to accept input and support from outside, many disaster preparedness-based activities are carried out to educate the public to be alert for disasters. For this reason, the study seeks to evaluate the disaster preparedness of the city of Banda Aceh, especially the coastal settlements of the city of Banda Aceh that are prone to the tsunami disaster. This aspect of the review in disaster preparedness-based research includes post-disaster plans to develop coastal urban settlements and rescue routes. The study began with a discussion of the initial mitigation plan a year after the 2004 disaster, followed by the conformity of the implementation of mitigation plans for several earthquakes that occurred in Banda Aceh between 2005 and 2018. In comparison, disasters and mitigation plans in Japan were also discussed. The results of this study are expected to be a reference for a better urban disaster mitigation planning not only for Banda Aceh but also can be used in other cities in Indonesia.