Landscape analysis and tsunami damage in Aceh: comment on Iverson and Prasad (2007)

Data presented in Iverson and Prasad (2007), Using landscape analysis to assess and model tsunami damage in Aceh province, Sumatra. Landscape Ecology 22: 323–331 do not justify their conclusion that tree belts provided an effective defence against the Indian Ocean tsunami in Aceh, Indonesia. The mitigation hypothesis is not explicitly tested, and their modelling approach to predict areas susceptible to tsunami damage ignores many variables known to be important in the area studied