The field visit enabled the team to explore in much greater depth potential tsunami evacuation strategies, which include: retrofitting existing structures, designing new evacuation structures with alternate meantime uses, investigating the seismic integrity of existing bridges, and researching the earthquake and tsunami parameters required for safe engineering design. The team also met with local stakeholders and with other organizations studying tsunami and earthquake risk in the region, in order to identify any “gaps” in the city’s current evacuation planning, where GHI and its project partners could most beneficially contribute expertise.

Based on its field investigations and on instructive dialogues with Indonesian organizations that include Andalas University in Padang, Laboratory for Earth Hazards (LIPI), and the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (DKP), the team concluded that:

• tsunami evacuation structures and bridges are essential to protect the inhabitants of Padang;

• there is a need for a more thorough, engineering-based evaluation than has been conducted to-date of the suitability of existing buildings to serve as evacuation structures, and of existing bridges to serve as elements of evacuation routes, and;

• additions to Padang’s tsunami evacuation infrastructure must carefully take into account technical matters, social considerations, and political issues specific to Padang.

Future plans include collaboration between U.S. and Indonesian engineers in developing designs for tsunami evacuation structures, as well as providing training for Indonesian authorities on siting, designing, and constructing tsunami evacuation structures, and; evaluating the suitability of buildings to serve as tsunami evacuation shelters.