Keeps Communities Safe from Deadly Volcano 19 July 2017

'Shadow network' keeps communities safe from deadly volcano 19 July 2017

making, communication systems and evacuations in Tungurahua.

The team of interdisciplinary researchers suggest the success story there forms a blueprint for best practice community engagement in disaster risk reduction projects around the world – where more than 600 million people live close to active volcanoes, and around two million have been displaced as a result of volcanic activity over the last 30 years.

Eruption. Credit: University of East Anglia

New research by the University of East Anglia (UEA) shows that 'shadow networks' linking volunteers with authorities can help keep some of the millions of people living near dangerous volcanoes safer.

These informal networks see community members working in close collaboration with scientists and government officials on monitoring, Ash fall. Credit: University of East Anglia communications, training and evacuation processes.

The study focused on the 'Throat of Fire' Lead author Dr Teresa Armijos, from UEA's School Tungurahua volcano in the Ecuadorian Andes, of International Development, said: "We argue that which is surrounded by several towns, with around the shadow network around Tungurahua volcano 30,000 people living close by. The researchers has played a key role in improving collective examined how the official disaster risk responses to volcanic risk, allowing people to management system, scientific monitoring and continue farming and maintain their livelihoods in community knowledge have adapted and evolved relative safety during heightened volcanic activity, over 15 years to be able to cope with long-term and minimising the need for forced evacuations, volcanic activity. which are highly disruptive.

The findings, published in the journal Global "By looking at the non-official interactions in Environmental Change, show that the network has combination with the official disaster risk helped make improvements in monitoring, decision-

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management system, our findings also show how communities can adapt to the complex problems and environmental change created by a long-lived volcanic eruption. This relationship is vital to enable a strong response to hazards in the future and is a blueprint for how other communities can engage with authorities and scientists to reduce disaster risk in the longer term."

The team conducted 130 interviews with government officials, scientists, community leaders and people living close to the Tungurahua volcano. Tensions between public and experts are common

in hazard assessment and communication. In this case, however, and as a result of the shadow Tungurahua. Credit: University of East Anglia networks, there has been increased trust in the authorities and scientists, enabling better communication between the different groups, with ad-hoc support from the military and local "There is a trust that has developed and is government to move people in and out of high-risk expressed between the volunteers and the areas during periods of heightened volcanic monitoring scientists. This trust is maintained by activity. having daily radio calls and also by working together in the field. There is a good dose of Another key element of this shadow network has sharing, mutual trust, and the activity of the volcano been its role in generating observations of the to keep everyone interested." volcano in near real-time and communicating these with scientists. The team carried out a detailed study of communication strategies and social responses Patty Mothes, from the Instituto Geofisico Escuela during two periods of escalating volcanic activity in Politecnica Nacional (IG-EPN), is an investigator on Tungurahua in 2006 and 2014. In 2006, an eruption the umbrella project Strengthening Resilience in killed six people and destroyed more than 50 Volcanic Areas (STREVA) and contributed to the homes. In the years before and after this eruption, research. She said: "This study is very important in intense ash falls have destroyed crops, killed that it documents the success of a local volunteer animals, and damaged roads and other group who have stuck together for almost 20 years infrastructure. Despite this, hundreds of families and their close relationship with the volcano, its continue to live and work on the slopes of the activity and the scientists like us who monitor it. volcano to sustain their livelihoods.

By 2014, processes between community

volunteers, local scientists and authorities had improved with a pan-volcano radio system and significant scientific adaptations including an improved capability to monitor and interpret the volcano's behaviour.

Co-author Dr Jeremy Phillips, of the University of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, said: "By examining cases like this, we can learn lessons about the potential of community-based disaster risk reduction in other contexts. It provides valuable

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evidence for how to reduce volcanic risk in practice, which is a critical step in finding ways of increasing society's resilience to events of this nature."

Ms Mothes added that as a result of the lessons learned at Tungurahua, the IG-EPN is already involved in two other volunteer networks at active volcanoes, Cotopaxi and Cerro Negro-Chiles on the Ecuador-Colombia border.

'Adapting to changes in volcanic behaviour: formal and informal interactions for enhanced risk management at Tungurahua Volcano, Ecuador' is published in Global Environmental Change.

More information: Maria Teresa Armijos et al. Adapting to changes in volcanic behaviour: Formal and informal interactions for enhanced risk management at Tungurahua Volcano, Ecuador, Global Environmental Change (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.06.002

Provided by University of East Anglia APA citation: 'Shadow network' keeps communities safe from deadly volcano (2017, July 19) retrieved 30 September 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2017-07-shadow-network-safe-deadly-volcano.html

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