Assessment of the implementation of the spatial plan tool for disaster prevention : a case of Banda Aceh, Aceh Province, Indonesia

Less attention is paid to the implementation of spatial plan by all stakeholders right from national to local levels as a regulatory instrument to guide the location of development has led to increasing number of disaster occurrences in Indonesia. The same dilemma also happened in Banda Aceh. Due to ineffective development control regulations and a failure to comply with the master plan to deliver several reconstruction projects in Banda Aceh created challenges and problems that remained unresolved. Hence, to minimize the impact of future disaster, the local government of Banda Aceh replaced the previous spatial plan then revised it by incorporating mitigation measures in the present spatial plan (RTRW 2006 _ 2026). Having a big interest in assessing the implementation of the present spatial plan, the researcher considers that there is a need to assess the effectiveness of the implementation of present spatial plan to minimize the impact of future natural disasters in Banda Aceh municipality. This is an exploratory research method with survey as the main research strategy. The study employed in depth interview with 11 key respondents and semi closed questionnaire for 45 respondents in three selected villages in Meuraxa to obtain primary data. The findings of the study indicated that there are nine mitigation measures proposed in Banda Aceh spatial plan such as escape route, escape building, open space, buffer zone, restriction development zone, and new development zone in order to minimize the impact of future disasters. Another finding revealed that several infrastructure plans have been implemented by the government to support disaster management activities, however not all activities had been successfully implemented like the provision of mangrove plantation as buffer zone due to lack of support from stakeholder and limited financial resources. The study revealed that one of most important management problem occurred in the implementation of spatial plan is the decision to apply living law as a legal basis in issuing the building permit rather than establishing temporary legal basis while waiting for the approval of new spatial plan. As a result, this legal decision has created a numerous spatial plan's misconducts on the ground has created numerous deviations of spatial plan in the ground and investment argument and community wishes often used by the government to justify the deviation of spatial plan. The finding also shown that the policy to legalized all building properties that had been built before disaster has become one of the indications that the government is inconsistent to implementing its spatial plan policy to achieve safer city. Finally, the absence of government's socialization and community participation during the planning process of the spatial plan have resulted a serious awareness problem. The communities in the three selected villages of Meuraxa sub-district are simply not aware of the existence of spatial plan, which is also the reason of why they are not compliance with any of the permits and regulations. Therefore, from above mentioned findings we can conclude that the proposed research hypothesis "the implementation of present spatial plan can effectively prevent the future impact of natural disasters in Banda Aceh" is partially accepted, meaning that the present spatial plan could not effectively prevent the future impact of natural disasters in Banda Aceh. Keywords: Spatial plan, Implementation, Disaster, Effective, Banda Aceh