Blueprints for change in post-Tsunami Aceh, Indonesia

Abstract

On the early morning of 26 December 2004, a 9.4 rupture of the Sunda megath-rust off of the west coast of Sumatra caused a tsunami that impacted countries all around the Indian Ocean, causing catastrophic damage and loss of life (Sieh 2012 ). In the decade since the event, billions of dollars have been spent on relief, rehabili-tation and reconstruction projects in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and the Maldives. These projects have met with varying degrees of success and failure, but to the credit of local communities, governments, NGOs, corpora-tions and private donors, tremendous progress has been made, and the scars of the event on the built environment have been replaced with new infrastructure and housing. Indeed, in heavily affected areas like Aceh, Indonesia, it would be diffi -cult for a recent visitor to identify the areas that were destroyed in 2004.