Tsunami Hazards Along Coastal Area of West Kalimantan Province, Indonesia

Abstract

This study aims to simulate tsunami wave heights and their travel time toward the West Kalimantan coastal area. A Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) will be developed in a coastal area in the West Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. The two scenarios of events that may trigger the tsunami waves are volcanic events caused by Mount Krakatau located in the Sunda Strait and tectonic subduction located at the Indian Ocean on the west side of the Sunda Strait. Modeling the tsunami propagation using a finite-element-based hydrodynamic model developed by the US Army Corps of Engineer, namely the Surface-water Modeling System (SMS), is carried out. The model simulates tsunami wave propagation for six alternative locations at the proposed site of NPP. The model domains consist of Sunda Strait and Karimata Strait domains. The Sunda Strait domain model is validated by the observed historical tsunami heights reaching the 12 locations in Lampung, Banten, West Java, and Jakarta of Indonesia. The model validations show a good agreement. The validated hydrodynamic model results of the Sunda Strait model are used as the boundary conditions for the Karimata Strait domain model. The Karimata Strait model results show that the peaks of tsunami wave heights that reach the western Kalimantan coast are between 12 cm and 116 cm. The minimum wave height peak that reaches the six prospective locations is 12 cm, which is located in Sambas Regency.