Centre of Excellence of Technological Innovation for Disaster Mitigation (GAMA-InaTEK) Universitas Gadjah Mada is one of the research institutions focused on disaster mitigation, particularly in landslides, floods, and volcanoes. Yogyakarta earthquake that occurred on May 27th, 2006 became the momentum for establishing the Disaster Mitigation Team of Faculty of Engineering which became the forerunner of this study center. After the eruption of Mount Merapi in October 2010, the name of Disaster Mitigation Team of Faculty of Engineering changed into Task Force (Satgas) of Disaster Mitigation. Then on March 16th, 2017, this Task Force became the Centre of Excellence of Technological Innovation for Disaster Mitigation (GAMA-InaTEK) of Universitas Gadjah Mada.
Indonesia is located at the confluence between 3 (three) large tectonic plates, the Asian Continent Plate, the Australian Continent Plate, and the Pacific Ocean Plate. This condition causes Indonesia to have a complex geological condition. Even though Indonesia is rich with natural resources, however Indonesia also very vulnerable to natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and landslides. Indonesia has been ranked second as the country with extreme risk of natural disasters after Bangladesh, according to Maplecroft (2010).
Disaster risk reduction is crucial in order to reduce the impact of potential disaster. Indonesia, as a country with high natural disaster risk, needs reliable institutions in the effort for reducing disaster risk. One of the efforts is by establishing research institute. Therefore, Centre of Excellence of Technological Innovation for Disaster Mitigation (GAMA-InaTEK) Universitas Gadjah Mada presents to provide one of the answers to the problem.
GAMA-InaTEK as part of Universitas Gadjah Mada undertakes research, development, and implementation of science that supports disaster mitigation efforts and technological innovation to mitigate the impact of potential disaster. Our objective is in line with the 4 priorities of Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, which is “investment in disaster risk reduction and in preparedness towards the resilience”. GAMA-InaTEK has built a landslide early warning system equipped with a ground movement detector that has been recognized as a national and global reference. The early warning system is also being developed for other types of geological disasters such as floods, flash floods, and volcanic eruptions.
