Towards disaster management in Indonesia Case studies: Jakarta and Yogyakarta provinces

Indonesia is a country straddling the equator line setting off a tropical climate, characterized by heavy rainfall, high temperatures, high humidity but low winds. It is also located in Southeast Asia, with a huge archipelago with total land and sea area reaching to about 5 million km2, comprised of more than 13,667 islands and total population of 259,940,857 (based on population census Dec 2010). The structure of the tectonics of Indonesia are very complex, because it is a meeting point of two tectonic plates, Indo-Australia and Eurasia, creating subduction zone and the formation of many volcanoes with about 90 of them remain active. These conditions give rise to tropical geohazards as well as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, floods and forest fires. Some of them recorded as staggering world disasters such as Tambora volcanic eruption in 1815 and Krakatau eruption in 1883. In addition, in December 2004 a devasting Tsunami struck Aceh Province. Based on the Asia Pacific Disaster Report prepared by the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR) and the UN Economic Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) on 26 October 2010, during 1980-2009 period in Asia Pacific, Indonesia has fourth ranked in the list of highest natural disasters about 312 cases, second ranked in the list of highest number of death approximately 191.164 people also has caused economic losses of at least US 22.5 billion. In this paper we can learn on disaster management in Indonesia with case studies in Jakarta and Yogyakarta Provinces.