ZEMCH 2015 - International Conference Proceedings | Page 392

1. Introduction and Background
The use of natural resources was introduced by the burst of industrial revolution, inventions and
technology in the 1700s, using coal as the energy source and economic growth. Growing economy raised living standards for people but on the other hand, pollution and exploration took on
new dimensions. Leading to massive population growth worldwide and economic expansion,
but this sadly also brought all the environmental problems with it (Fig.1).

Figure 1: Sustainable development (Vallance et al. 2001)
Indonesia’s geographic location among other countries and continents, created two bio geographic regions (Indomalayan and Australasian) supporting biodiversity of animal and plant life
in inner rain forest areas and coastal areas. However, the critical location is responsible of many
natural disasters, such as earthquakes, floods and forest fires. For example; Indonesia was one
of the countries which were greatly affected by the enormous earthquake struck in the Indian
Ocean in December 26th of 2004, which generated a large tsunami that devastated many Indonesian islands (Fig.2).

Figure 2: Tsunami effect in Gleebruk city, Indonesia 2004 (Audio Visual Services 2006)

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ZEMCH 2015 | International Conference | Bari - Lecce, Italy