What do Ecosystems What do Ecosystems have to do with have to do with

Cyclones, Earthquakes and Tsunami?Cyclones, Earthquakes and Tsunami?

Brian G. McAdoo

Department of Earth Science and Geography

Yala Village5 cm in resort

Yala Safari7 m tsunami

27 dead

Yala National Park

Sri Lanka

Shut Up

andand

Listen

Banda Aceh, January 2009photo by Alexandra Marvar

Batticaloa, January 2005

New Orleans, October 2005photo by Alexandra Marvar

Samoa, October 2009

(hazard x vulnerability / capacity) - mitigation

Risk

frequency/magnitude coupled human / environment system

risk = (hazard x vulnerability / capacity) - mitigation

engineering

policy

geoscience, cee

hazards

seismic

volcanic massmovements

climate

RISK

resilienceecology, anthropology,

sociology, economics

ecosystems

human systems

solutionscee, public policy

engineering

policy

RISK

Frequency

1907 AD 850 AD1350 ADAceh

Where Where waswas the coastline?the coastline?

2004 AD

1907 AD

1350 AD

850 AD

K. Monecke et al.A 1,000-year sediment record of tsunami recurrence in northern SumatraNature 455, 2008

Syiahrial

2009

Banda Acehphoto by Alexandra Marvar

Failed mangrove plantingUdjung Pancu, Banda Aceh

NAD, Indonesia

Wetlands as buffers and/or evacuation hindrances

SatitoaSamoa

PadangIndonesia

Photograph courtesy NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

ErosionRoute de Jacmel

Haiti

Gonaives, Haiti3 September 2008

REUTERS/Marco Dormino/Minustah

EnriquilloEnriquillo--Plantain Garden FaultPlantain Garden Fault

EnriquilloEnriquillo--Plantain Garden FaultPlantain Garden Faultkg

Erosion and earthquake?Erosion and earthquake?

deposition

erosion

T AT A

deposition

3 m tsunami3 m tsunami

7 dead7 dead

Petit ParadisHaiti

Riviere Canot

Erosion potentialHaiti

BwaCarrefour

Haiti

FlushingPetionville

Haiti

DownstreamCarrefour

Haiti

TruitierCite Soliel

Haiti

inte

rdis

cip

lin

ary

tr

an

sd

is

ci

pl

in

ar

y

engineerscivil (infrastructure)

fluid dynamics

natural scientistsearth science

ecology

social scientistsgeography

anthropology

plannerspolicy

implementation

NGOs/IOsdevelopment agenda

public sectorimplementing solutions

academiaconstraining the problem

findings

data needs

agenda and needs

needs and agenda

The Tsunami ProjectTransdisciplinary Approaches to Tsunami Risk Reduction

dis

cip

lin

ary

tr

an

sd

is

ci

pl

in

ar

y

• predictive models

• structural effects

• solutions

• past is key to present

• frequency-magnitude

• hazard ID

• political structures

• economies

• culture

• infrastructure

• regulations

• design life

http://tsunamiproject.org

The Tsunami ProjectTransdisciplinary Approaches to Tsunami Risk Reduction

When we try to pick out anything by itself,

we find it hitched to everything else in the world.

www. t s un am ip r o j e c t . org

we find it hitched to everything else in the world.

- John Muir