This study discusses the role of the socio-cognitive setting of the village in the development of effective DRR on the Island of Simeulue, Aceh, Indonesia. Simeulue was the first place struck by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, but suffered less than 10 casualties. A wider program of qualitative research focusing on narrative interviews examined the cultural drivers of the island's DRR found that a traditional story related in and about local villages provided local people with intimate spatial knowledge and self-efficacy to take appropriate action at the sign of onset of a tsunami. A diverse literature relating to the influence of local places on individual and community identity indicates that the integration of social and place orientation can contribute to effective DRR. A review of the alignment of investment in integrating place, community empowerment and resilience is discussed. It is proposed that investment in ‘villaging’ is not only warranted, it has the potential to generate transformative change in resilience and DRR.

Smong is an indigenous knowledge related to the tsunami. The word of smong comes from the Devayan language of Simeulue and refers to the complex of earthquake/sea receding/giant wave that is typical of tsunami events in Indonesia. Now their pride in the word smong has spread to Aceh and is being adopted in their efforts to adapt to earthquake and tsunami disasters. Simeuluean people, grateful to their nation for the reconstruction after 2004 and want to grow their pride in smong to a national level. They wanted to make a gift of smong to be owned by the Indonesian people. To do this, they feel this study initiates that the word smong should be part of the narrative in Indonesian as the basis for a new understanding of the tsunami disaster by Indonesian people. Initiating the word smong in Indonesian vocabulary does not mean removing the word tsunami that now an international word. But the acceptance of smong should be a source of pride in the protection of our greatest wealth of people.

Growing international appreciation of the increasing risk posed by natural hazard events acknowledges the effects that climate change and increasingly vulnerable populations will have on future costs and casualties of disasters. As concerns about the impacts of natural hazard events increase, researchers and practitioners are interested in identifying effective processes to build individual and community resilience. To date, despite resources, time and effort being made by governments and NGOs to encourage disaster risk reduction (DRR) programs at national, regional and local levels, most communities remain poorly prepared, and improvements have only been incremental. One way to gain insight into systems that may improve local community resilience is to examine (rare) examples where communities have avoided the worst impacts of a natural disaster through implementation of recognizable DRR strategies. One example is Simeulue Island in Indonesia. Simeulue was only 43 km from the epicenter of the earthquake that initiated the Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004. The 15 m tsunami waves destroyed all but two of the islands 171 schools, 60 bridges, 41 medical centers and left 85% of the population homeless; but only 7 out of the 80,000 inhabitants died [1]. Music and song have been identified as an important part of Simeulue's DRR success [2-4]. This paper discusses the nature of the songs of Simeulue and considers the socio-cognitive processes whereby music was co-opted to entrain risk information about tsunami and their avoidance into the Simeulue community's Sense of Coherence ('SOC'). The findings indicate that the people of Simeulue applied techniques now understood to optimize learning. While highly effective, they rely on rudimentary human skills and have consequently been overlooked or ignored in most formal DRR contexts.

There are familiar patterns in the ways individuals and society process disaster recovery and future disaster risk reduction (DRR) needs as the memory of a disaster fades. Affect is strongest immediately after the event. However, typically, for most people the memory of, and the negative emotions associated with a disaster event, increasingly fade with time, even while the actual memory of the event remains. While the fading of memories and emotions represents a mechanism for maintaining psychological wellbeing, forgetting disasters may have negative implications for DRR. As time passes, the decrease in the intensity of feelings is matched by a decrease in intensity of efforts to prepare for future disasters. This association is reflected in the intensity of reconstruction activity as well as the degree to which society focusses effort on continuing DRR programs. This process has been defied in Pulau Simeulue in Aceh Province. This island is well recognized as an exemplar of community-based risk communication and DRR activity as a result of managing maintaining the collective memory of `smong' - the local Simeulue word for the earthquake/tsunami phenomenon - for 100 years. Using the findings from a grounded theory study, this paper examines the importance of having a specific word for natural hazard to successful DRR and what might be learned from the example of Simeulue.

As projections about the number and scale of natural hazard events and their impact on human populations grow, increasing attention is being paid to developing effective means for preparing for and mitigating those impacts. At the same time there is an emerging understanding that gradual and incremental changes in disaster risk reduction (DRR) will not adequately meet the future needs of vulnerable populations. Transformational changes have been identified as a necessary requirement to avoid ongoing large-scale losses of life and property and models have been proposed to recalibrate DRR strategies to achieve transformative changes. One cited example of a transformative change in DRR is that of Simeulue Island. Simeulue Island suffered two tsunamis approximately 100 years apart (1907, 2004) with markedly different impacts. This paper looks in detail at the cognitive and developmental mechanisms Simeulue co-opted to sustain the transformational change throughout the 20th century. Information from interviews and observation identified the role of grandmothers have in the effective communication of risk as well as motivating appropriate action to save lives. The possibility of similarly overlooked, local, and pre-existing community capacities for transformative change in DRR is then discussed.

Participatory GIS has emerged as a useful tool for participatory planning and collaborative decision making. Many participatory GIS approaches are low-tech methods, including using physical objects such as 3D topographical models to assist with landscape recognition. More recently, physical 3D models have been augmented with light projection of digital landscape information and simulation models. Here we describe approaches currently being employed using 3D Projection-Augmented Landscape Models (3DPALM). We also explore the potential of emerging approaches that bridge traditional 3D participatory GIS and geosimulation models. Case studies are presented from Australia, Mexico and Canada that use physical 3D landscapes augmented with geosimulation models to support participatory planning, education and cross-cultural knowledge exchange. The work described in this paper suggests there are significant opportunities for the wider use of 3DPALM application to support a broad range participatory planning applications.

Banda Aceh city faced an urban water problem after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami devastated and damaged most of the city. Over 60% of the city area was destroyed, including the entire loss of some areas of land and massive impacts on infrastructure. Water supply infrastructure in particular was badly hit, with only 20% of the clean water available immediately following the event. Contamination of the groundwater by seawater was a crucial factor as the tainted seawater disrupted the clean water balance, which in turn damaged the facilities of the local public water utility company (Perusahaan Daerah Air Minum, PDAM). This loss of capacity came at a critical time, with a large number of disaster victims having a pressing need for water, for crucial hygiene as well as consumption. The reconstruction and rehabilitation phases of the disaster recovery sought to resolve the water resource problem for Banda Aceh citizens, with the restoration of PDAM becoming a top priority. This chapter highlights the urban water management issues and challenges of this situation and the problem of providing the clean water to Banda Aceh’s citizens following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Although the occurrence of extreme events generally cannot be prevented, their negative effects can be lessened by various risk reductions actions and by improving the capacity of communities and individuals to cope. Improving the resilience of both individuals and communities reduces the effects of hazards allowing a faster recovery and return to normal and is increasingly becoming a goal of communities, organisations and governments throughout the world. Improving resilience is complicated and often requires numerous interrelated actions that vary depending specific circumstances of the people, community and location. To meaningfully determine, co-ordinate, plan and prioritise the most effective measures of improving resilience, a baseline assessment of the community's strengths and weaknesses is required. This paper contributes by examining the status of community resilience in two remote towns within the Northern Territory of Australia. A qualitative narrative assesses community resilience for small remote locations and discusses relevant issues alongside the scoring achieved using a common scoring methodology. It further provides insights and an examination of the methods of assessment and appropriateness of assessment methodology. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

While the occurrence of extreme events generally cannot be prevented, their negative effects can be lessened by reducing risks and improving the capacity of people and communities to deal with them. Improving community resilience helps reduce the effects of natural hazards and is increasingly becoming a goal of communities, organisations and governments. To meaningfully determine, coordinate, plan and prioritise the most effective measures to improve resilience, a baseline assessment of a community's strengths and weaknesses is required. This paper quantitatively assesses the status of community resilience in two remote indigenous communities, Ngukurr and Gunbalanya in the Northern Territory. A quantitative assessment is used to explore community perceptions of disaster resilience within the study areas as well as the methods of assessment and appropriateness of the assessment methodology. - See more at: https://ajem.infoservices.com.au/items/AJEM-31-04-15#sthash.rDNwkZoA.dpuf

Australia has committed to substantial cuts in greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) achieved through a national emissions trading system. raising important issues for relatively undeveloped regions of Northern Australia and, in particular, Indigenous lands. Can mostly Indigenous and socio-economically disadvantaged people living in such regions develop institutions to contribute significantly to the mitigation of GHGE, yet pursue regional development? Will national policies adequately recognise the special needs and potential contributions of such communities? These questions and the challenges inherent in them are addressed in this article with reference to a significant initiative involving the community management of landscape fire to reduce annual GHGE from savanna burning. This initiative appears to offer potential for engagement with global carbon markets, but it will need local, national and international support, along with appropriate changes in attitudes and legal arrangements, to ensure an equitable distribution of tangible rewards, while protecting the cultural and related benefits of customary fire use. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This paper is written in response to ideas and information presented by Morwood and Tresize (1989) pertaining to the antiquity and distribution of axes in Sahul and in particular to one axe from S.E. Cape York. It is felt that this response is necessary because, whilst Morwood and Tresize raise some important issues and identify some apparent trends in the late Pleistocene of Sahul, their paper also engenders some confusion about these and other issues. Whilst I will not contend that the axe is a "false fact" it is true that serious consideration to the validity of the inferences Morwood and Tresize present is necessary due to the nascent nature of our understanding of Pleistocene humans and Morwood and Tresize's suggestions in this regard.

Archaeologists studying rock paintings in Australia (eg Morwood 1980; Rosenfeld 1987) and elsewhere (eg Vinnicombe 1976) have commented on differences in the colours of paint used through time. Morwood (1980), Rosenfeld (1987) and Vinnicombe (1976) all separately note an apparent dominance, in early paintings, of reds over yellows. Study of rock paintings near Cloncurry, northwestern Queensland, has revealed that the paint is undergoing a change on the rock face whereby goethite (FeOOH), a yellow to brown mineral, is being converted to the red mineral hematite (Fe2203). The implications of this change on chronological interpretations of rock art could be significant and far-reaching, especially those concerned with colour superposition.

zees, these creatures can produce acoustic output that is a sufficiently good approximation to human speech that a few sounds or 'words' can be interpreted as speech.They do so using mechanisms that are variously different from our own.Nobody claims that their vocal output is in all respects indistinguishable from our own , or that their vocalizations encode the phonological features that underlie human speech capacity.The point is simply that acoustic waves that resemble human speech can be produced by a wide range of very different mechanisms.As to the Neanderthals , I am inclined to agree with Lieberman that they probably had some limited speech and language capacities.Perhaps they spoke Kabardian?But the evidence is as limited as their purported speech.Concerning the evidence from fossils, Du Brul 22 has claimed that Lieberman's reconstructions imply a creature that could not open its mouth, let alone talk, and concludes that "the structure of the Neanderthal skull has been seriously misinterpreted" .Lieberman and colleagues seem remarkably sure about the cerebral morphology and cognitive capacities of a species that has been dead and gone for a very long time.Returning to the matter of the hyoid, I quote Luchsinger and Arnold 23: "If the hyoid bone has to be removed for surgical reasons, its absence is not noticed in any manner."Unfortunately, no reference is given for this remarkable assertion .