Paper short abstract:

Today, scientific projects are to be international, inter- and trans-disciplinary. How does this work in practice? This paper examines the geoscience-practice interface based on the Tsunami_Risk project, which aims to integrate non-seismically induced tsunamis into the Indonesian warning system.

Paper long abstract:

The United Nations ranked reconnecting science and policy as 4th out of 21 challenges for sustainability in the 21st century – a priority which seems to have been taken up by the geoscientific community behind the 2017 Cape Town statement on Geoethics. But what about the practical implementation of conducting international, interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary geoscientic research? This paper examines the science-practice interface based on the case of Tsunami_Risk, a German-Indonesian research project which started in 2021 and aims to integrate non-seismically induced tsunamis into the Indonesian warning system (InaTEWS). Following the 2004 Indian ocean tsunami which caused more than 167,000 victims in Indonesia alone, Indonesian and German geoscientists were instrumental in developing the InaTEWS successfully operating since 2008. In 2018 however, tsunamis triggered by the Anak Krakatau volcanic eruption and by a coastal landslide in Palu caused hundreds of deaths. This was predictable and the Anak Krakatau scenario had indeed been described in a 2013 academic paper: The InaTEWS produces warnings based on seismic sensors only, reflecting a strict division between the Indonesian agencies that focus on seismology, volcanology, geology and oceanography only. Building on 30 qualitative interviews and two science-policy workshops with German and Indonesian scientists and practitioners, the paper details the successes and challenges encountered by those currently pushing for non-seismically induced tsunamis to be included in the InaTEWS. Politics and alliance building play as much a role as scientific and technological progress.