Some of the buildings in Aceh Province, Indonesia constructed after the 2004 earthquake and tsunami disaster were found vulnerable. The vulnerable buildings were retrofitted to make them safer and child friendly. Save the Children, one of the implementing agencies, assumed that the process of retrofitting would attract interest from the communities, raise their earthquake awareness, stimulate earthquake safe construction practices, and contribute to earthquake disaster risk reduction. It was also assumed that the retrofitting process would benefit the communities through knowledge transfer of safer construction practices. To assess the impact on awareness and knowledge transfer of the retrofitting work carried out by Save the Children from 2005 to 2008, a survey was carried out in 2009. A total of 104 people who were directly involved in the retrofitting/rehabilitation process were interviewed. The survey covered four districts in Aceh Province, Indonesia where schools, health facilities, and houses were retrofitted. The survey results show that the respondents felt that the impact of retrofitting work on transferring knowledge in the communities was not significant. However, the respondents felt that the retrofitting work had a definite impact on raising awareness of disaster risks and measures for disaster risk reduction.

Hazard and disaster research requires a willingness to step outside of traditional disciplinary ontological and epistemological assumptions to both accommodate and integrate different perspectives. Moreover, the complex qualities of hazards and disasters necessitate interdisciplinary approaches to inform theory development that encompasses environmental, human, and infrastructure systems at multiple scales and units of analysis. Unfortunately, truly integrative hazard and disaster theory at a scale broad enough to account for the many systems and processes involved is currently limited. In this paper, we argue that robust hazard and disaster theory can only arise from interdisciplinary research and collaboration.We examine challenges to the development of interdisciplinary hazard and disaster theory, and discuss the characteristics of theory necessary for the goal-oriented nature of research aimed at reducing disaster impact.

Annoyance of low frequency pure and combined tones was measured in a laboratory experiment. Three low frequency tones at frequencies of 31.5, 50 and 80 Hz at four sound pressure levels, from about 6 dB to 24 dB above average hearing threshold, were selected as pure tones. The combined tones were combinations of two tones: the four levels of 31.5, 50 and 80 Hz tones and a constant level 40 Hz tone. The results showed that the rate of increase in annoyance of pure tones with increase in the sound pressure level was higher at lower frequencies, as reported in previous studies. The results for the combined tones showed that the increase in the annoyance of the combined tone compared to the annoyance of pure tone was dependent on the level difference of the two tones and their frequency separation. These results were compared with the evaluation obtained from different objective methods. The three methods were Moore's loudness model, the low frequency A-weighting and the total energy summation used as objective evaluation methods. Among the methods, the low frequency A-weighting gave the best correlation.

PurposeAs the widely held perception is that retrofitting is a complicated process and is expensive, the purpose of this paper is to analyze cost effectiveness of retrofitting existing buildings in order to make them safer against earthquake and also to add child friendly features. This case study focuses on the simple method of retrofitting on rectangular single storey existing school buildings. The school buildings are of different types, based on material, shape and size, number of storeys and their vulnerability to earthquake is different case by case. The paper also outlines the process of vulnerability assessment and approach to retrofitting.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on the data collected from a case study carried out in Aceh (Indonesia) as a part of an assessment of vulnerability of newly constructed school facilities and retrofitting them in order to increase their seismic performance.FindingsOne of the key findings of this study is that retrofitting can be achieved through the use of simple methods, tools and equipment and local human resource. This approach not only reduced the vulnerability of school children to earthquake disaster but also contributed to disseminate the message of culture of safety among the neighboring communities. Another major finding is that cost of retrofitting is less compared to the cost of demolition and rebuilding. The retrofitting option further saves the cost as it is time saving and the downtime is less. The retrofitting process and onsite training can also be an effective medium for dissemination of best construction practices in the community. The process also helps the local people to understand the context of risk and raise awareness on disaster risk reduction.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of this paper are not limited to vulnerability assessment and retrofitting of school building in Aceh. They can be replicated in other parts of Indonesia and countries having similar type of buildings.Practical implicationsThe findings of this paper will be useful for decision makers to replicate similar processes in other types of schools in other areas. The findings will also be useful advocate disaster safer and child friendly schools.Originality/valueThe paper is unique in its findings that retrofitting of school buildings does not only make the schools safer and reduces the risk to children but is also cost effective compared to new construction.