RDI and BGS Research Partnership in Geological Hazards and Disaster Management
RDI research officers (Medhiansyah Putra, Fathia Lutfiananda, and Afandi Aldin) have collaborated with the British Geological Survey (BGS) to point out the challenges of Indonesia’s geological hazards and future collaborations to address the issues. At the beginning of the collaboration, BGS visited RDI’s office and held a discussion that aimed to share each other’s perspectives, knowledge, and resources, especially in the geological hazards of Indonesia. RDI presented the disaster and climate resilience (DCR) projects and publications that have been conducted in the past few years. The Spatial System Center (SSC) is also presented as a center that focuses on spatial data collection, management, analysis, and visualization to support all research clusters in RDI.
On the other side, BGS also introduced its company profile, including its vision, mission, resources, partners, and area of expertise, as an overview. The discussion continued with presentations related to
research themes that will be collaborated on with partners in Indonesia, such as RDI, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Padjadjaran University
(UNPAD), and the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (CVGHM).
On the first day (3/10), they visited Padjadjaran University (UNPAD) and reached several potential research topics such as geohazards, georisks, communication and preparedness, and geotourism. The
next day, during the discussion with the Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (CVGHM), it focused on delivering and discussing with the BGS regarding innovations that can be applied in Indonesia to increase or improve the geological disaster monitoring system. The discussion between RDI-BGS and representatives from Geological Engineering ITB was held on the third day and focused on recent research projects from ITB.
Recently, the faculty of Earth Sciences at ITB collaborated with the Ministry of Finance of Indonesia in developing assessment frameworks and maps on exposed infrastructure based on various geological hazards, including earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides, and volcanic hazards. On the same day, during the discussion between RDI-BGS and the Research Center for Geological Hazards (BRIN), a representative from BRIN provided a detailed introduction to the new research center, which consists of several research focuses, including earthquake, tsunami, and volcano research, and aims to deliver impactful research to the people.
As a follow-up, there are several next steps and upcoming collaborations that will be further explored, namely potential collaborations with BRIN, CVGHM: Geological Engineering, and UNPAD on the discussed topics. Specifically, the potential research collaboration in landslides and earthquakes, with a focus on Bogor Regency and the Bandung Basin, and the volcano topic, with a focus on Halmahera Island volcanoes.
Written by Dhelia Christanti
