New engraving finds in Alor Island, Indonesia extend known distribution of engravings in Oceania

Engraving sites are rare in mainland and Island Southeast Asia and few examples have been identified in the Indonesian islands. Here we report three new engraving locales in Alor Island, Indonesia. The engravings are executed on boulders and in shelters and include figurative and geometric motifs, some combining cupules. Motifs incorporating cupules occur widely in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Near Oceania but have not previously been reported to the west in Indonesia. The Alor engraving sites thus extend the known distribution of cupule-based motifs to the west. These recent finds also indicate that the paucity of engravings found in the islands of eastern Indonesia is likely due to the comparatively few archaeological surveys conducted in this region.</p

Flood Risk in Asia's Urban Mega-deltas: Drivers, Impacts and Response

Asia's urbanized mega-deltas are experiencing increased incidences of flooding. Flood risk is increasing due to urban growth, which makes people more vulnerable and threatens economic assets, and due to factors that increase flood hazard, including reduced delta aggradation, subsidence though natural resource extraction, and climate change, including extreme weather events, such as typhoons, and sea level rise. The recent history of flooding in Asia's deltaic cities and the drivers of that risk have been examined in this article. We give particular attention to the Pearl River Delta, and its cities of Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Shenzhen, important economic centres of Asia. The flood risk is substantial, but flood risk management appear to suffer through a lack of sufficient strategic planning, and the difficulty of defending deltaic cities through traditional engineering approaches alone. Drawing on lessons from flood risk management internationally, we suggest that there are ways forward in developing flood mitigation strategies for deltaic cities in the region, which deserve further exploration. © 2012, National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA). All rights reserved