Jakarta, Indonesia Sentinel- The early warning system is an important part of the community preparedness mechanism. It is a key factor linking the preparedness and emergency response stages.
This was said by an Associate Expert Researcher at BRIN’s Center for Climate and Atmospheric Research, Didi Satiadi at the 11th edition of the Talkshow Program Bincang Sains Bandung Kawasan Garut (Bisaan Bangga) which is monitored online via Instagram in Jakarta, Wednesday (28/12/2022).
Theoretically, he said, if early warnings are delivered on time, then an event that has the potential to cause a disaster can minimize its negative impact.
This early warning system is carried out to reduce disaster risk. One example is avoiding disaster-prone areas if possible.
“Preventing this can sometimes be done sometimes not. Like extreme rain events for example. Then what we do is we try to control it, the water that spills, we drain it through flood canals, open floodgates make ponds, and so on. The last third is that we try to reduce the impact of the disaster,” Didi explained.
Regarding the cause of the increasingly extreme weather, Didi stated that it is something natural and 5% of the events cannot be avoided.
But apart from the natural ones, there are also those caused by human actions. “Well this is of course the first thing we know is global warming due to excessive fossil burning causing climate change,” he said.
Climate change basically increases what is called the hydrological cycle. He said that the hydrological cycle is usually described as a motor.
“The motor’s wheels are spun by the engine. If the engine is gassed, the wheels spin faster. So the engine of this weather is from the sun, warming. If the warming increases due to greenhouse gases, the hydrological side like the chain will spin faster, because faster hydrology means faster evaporation and more intense, heavier rain. So it’s wetter, it’s drier, so the intensification of this hydrology goes to a higher extreme. So the wetter the drier, so these extreme events tend to increase, both in frequency and intensity,” he explained.
In addition, there are also conditions on the environment, namely population growth that changes land use in urban areas, so that environmental conditions decline.
“To slow it down, if we already know the cause, we try to reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases that enter the atmosphere. For example, by planting trees. As well as the use of fossil-based energy. With renewable energy such as from the sun, then from waves, wind from dams, this is all very potential to replace fossil energy, including the electrification of electric cars, it is certainly very effective,” he said. (InfoPublik.id)
