HaffezaTermizi: Entry 4

This case study presented by Dr. Grace Yuswita Harahap in case study tsunami disaster recovery of Banda Acheh, Indonesia. On 26 December 2004, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake occurred off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia.The epi-centre was located under sea water at 3.32 N 95.85 E. This is the fourth largest earthquake in the world since 1900. The earthquake generated tsunamis which swept across the Indian Ocean within hours. Over 120,000 people lost their lives in this disaster. Areas near to the epicentre in Indonesia, especially Acheh, were devastated by the earthquake and tsunamis. The tsunamis also affected Phuket and surrounding areas in Thailand, Penang in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India, and places as far as Somalia in Africa ( NationalUniversity of Singapore). This case study concentrate of Banda Acheh how they recovered to be a city again. The disaster made the city became desert, only one mosque standing structure left in this city (Figure 1). Reconstruction of Banda Acheh requires the involvement of many parties of participation. The residents involved in a natural disaster is difficult to be diagnosed because of the numbers immigrant and died. There are difficulties in obtaining information because they do not want to remember events that occurred in their life. The reconstruction takes a lot of participation to plan the new planning of Banda Acheh (Figure 3) . According to Dr Grace, the village planning process to reconstruction the Banda Acheh such as below (Figure 2):

1) Introduction to community

2) Community driven process

3) Community Land Mapping

4) Topographical Survey

5) Land Reuse Discussion

6) Housing Plot Draft

7) Discussion Village Plan Scenario

8)Village Planning Scenario signed by residents,representative and government officials

Figure 1: The city of Acheh before and after the disaster. Source: Grace (2007)

Figure 2: Village Planning Process. Source: Grace (2007)

Figure 3: Banda Acheh After Reconstruction. Source: Grace (2007)

Seminar Paper Proposal- Urban Heat Island.

UHI stands for Urban Heat Island. According DOE, Malaysia, this phenomena happen because of development activities ranging from deforestation to erosion, hazardous & toxic wastes to water & air pollution and creation of heat islands. The climate changed because of unhealthy activities in urban area such as pollution from the factories, transportation gases and etc. The employment opportunities offered in the city resulted in the increase of people in the urban area. This situation happen in our country such as Penang, Johor and Kuala Lumpur. Therefore we choose the scope for my seminar paper is focusing on the issues of UHI in others countries and their application in facing this problem. The objective of this paper are to study on the issues of UHI in others countries and strategies to overcomes this problem. Also to identify the effective strategies to be implemented in Malaysia.