Indigenous knowledge management to enhance community resilience to tsunami risk: Lessons learned from Smong traditions in Simeulue island, Indonesia

A. Rahman, A. Sakurai, K. Munadi

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

32 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Knowledge accumulation and production embedded in communities through social interactions meant that the Smong tradition of indigenous knowledge of tsunami risk successfully alerted people to the 2004 tsunami, on the island of Simeulue, in Aceh, Indonesia. Based on this practical example, an indigenous management model was developed for Smong information. This knowledge management method involves the transformation of indigenous knowledge into applicable ways to increase community resilience, including making appropriate decisions and taking action in three disaster phases. First, in the pre-disaster stage, the community needs to be willing to mainstream and integrate indigenous knowledge of disaster risk reduction issues into related activities. Second, during disasters, the Smong tradition should make the community able to think clearly, act based on informed decisions, and protect themselves and others by using their indigenous knowledge. Last, in the post-disaster phase, the community needs to be strong enough to face challenges and support each other and "building back better" efforts, using local resources. The findings for the Smong tradition provide valuable knowledge about community resilience. Primary community resilience to disasters is strongly related to existing knowledge that triggers appropriate decisions and actions during pre-disaster, disaster, and post-disaster phases.

Original languageEnglish
Article number012018
JournalIOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science
Volume56
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017 Mar 1
Event10th Aceh International Workshop and Expo on Sustainable Tsunami Disaster Recovery, AIWEST-DR 2016 - Banda Aceh, Indonesia
Duration: 2016 Nov 222016 Nov 24

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Science(all)
  • Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)

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