Indonesia’s BNPB drafts standard operating procedures for InAWARE

Since the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, Indonesia’s national disaster management agency (Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana, BNPB) has been focused on increasing disaster resilience to safeguard the nation. Now, ten years later, BNPB and PDC are collaborating to help operationalize the InAWARE multi-hazard monitoring and early warning system to address hazard vulnerability for the Indonesian archipelago.

Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), InAWARE provides valuable decision support to BNPB, as well as the ability to facilitate information sharing within and between national and provincial disaster management stakeholder agencies.

Working closely with BNPB, Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) developed and installed the custom InAWARE system, based on the DisasterAWARE platform. From January 19 to 23, PDC Disaster Management Specialist and Response Lead Michael Chatman and Indonesia National Project Representative Anom Parikesit met in Jakarta to conduct an InAWARE Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) Working Session. At the event, eight select participants from BNPB began the process of outlining how the InAWARE system would be utilized within Indonesia’s disaster management context.

PDC’s existing SOPs were used as a starting point to draft the necessary document for regional application. During discussions, participants identified Indonesia-specific procedures for manually posting and responding to landslides, volcano, flooding, wildfires, and other hazards. Also, an overview of PDC’s Exercise SOP was used to initiate discussions on the application of InAWARE in support of disaster-preparedness exercises.

Additional follow-up and discussion will be conducted with the BNPB Training Center, as PDC continues to support BNPB staff in their review the draft SOPs, preparing them for executive-level approval.

For more information on InAWARE:
• Find out about InAWARE training sessions,
• Read about the InAWARE Technical Exchange Workshop,
• Find out about the recent InAWARE CONOPS engagement,
• Read about the installation and deployment of InAWARE,
• See how InAWARE was highlighted during a UN-SPIDER meeting, 
• Read about the InAWARE kickoff workshop in Jakarta, and
• Look over information about the Great Sumatra Earthquake and Indian Ocean Tsunami.