Aceh Mapping Assistance Project

Estimated budget	A$10 million
Commenced	May 2006
Scheduled completion	Phase I: February 2007
Counterpart Agencies	National Coordinating Agency for Surveys and Mapping (BAKOSURTANAL); Aceh Reconstruction Agency (BRR); National Land Agency (BPN)
Main Locations	Banda Aceh, Aceh Besar, Aceh Barat and Pidie
Managing Contractor	Phase I: Apogee Imaging International

Background

The 26 December 2004 earthquake and tsunami in Northern Sumatra had a devastating impact on the provinces of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) and Nias Island, in Indonesia. The situation in Nias was further exacerbated by the March 28th 2005 earthquake. Much of the region's coastal infrastructure, housing, and record systems have been lost, along with more than 130,000 lives. Approximately 300,000 land parcels were directly affected by the tsunami, including through the loss of evidence of ownership for many of these land parcels. The earthquake also had a significant effect on the topography of the coast in NAD, with reports suggesting that the west coast of Aceh dropped between 1 and 3 metres. Areas which were previously inhabitable are now flood plains. Aerial observations show that drainage patterns and river-flows have changed, particularly in coastal areas as rivers. Banda Aceh, the capital of NAD, experienced total loss in the low-lying areas affected by the tsunami. Most of the rest of the western coast, and outlying islands, were severely damaged, with several towns and villages completely lost.

Geographic changes in the coastal areas have to be mapped to allow reconstruction in Aceh province to take place. Progress on land titles, spatial planning, houses, roads, bridges, sanitation and public utilities are all heavily dependent on the availability of good quality maps. A number of donors are currently working to assist in the production of updated maps in various scales across NAD, however, gaps in information remain, and availability of maps produced remains a major issue.

Description

The Aceh Mapping Assistance Project assists with mapping of Aceh to meet high priority mapping and geospatial surveying needs throughout tsunami affected areas of Aceh and North Sumatra to further progress the re-establishment of land boundaries and rebuilding of community infrastructure.

This project is divided into three phases as follows:

Phase I: covers the collection, production, storage and dissemination of radar mapping products of coastal and island areas of Aceh and North Sumatra affected by the tsunami.
Phase II: produces topographic line maps from the data completed under Phase I.
Phase III: contributes to progress of urgent construction surveying needs in Aceh and support for management, storage and dissemination of the information.

Achievements/outcomes to date

The Aceh Mapping Assistance Project is at phase I of its implementation. The achievements to date include:

National Coordinating Agency for Surveys and Mapping (Bakosurtanal) computer system upgrade completed, including complete preparation of hardware, software and network infrastructure for handover to Bakosurtanal at the end of Phase 1.
Mapping data for Nias has been acquired and processed.
Data for all other areas has been acquired, and is currently being processed.

This page was last updated on 25 January 2007