This photo is courtesy of INGEOMINAS

                                                                                                                                                                 Versión en Español
Galeras volcano workshop

Dates: 6th to 11th of July 2009

Venue: Universidad de Nariño.
               Calle 18 Carrera 50. Phone +57 2 7311449
               Luis Santander Auditoritorium.
               Cuidad Universitaria Torobajo.
               Pasto. Colombia

Introduction

Galeras had nearly constant activity during the past 500 years. Approximately 10,000 people live within the designated high-hazard zone and about 400,000 people within the area of potential harmful effects. A wide variety of stakeholders are affected by the hazards including: farmers, indigenous villagers, and people in urban environments. Decisions on mitigation and response are the responsibility various governmental offices and the national emergency system (SNPAD). According to the current plan, when the risk level is high people in the high risk zone are required to evacuate.

The volcano currently is in a very active stage and a large eruption (e.g. VEI 3 or higher) is possible within the next hundred years. There is a growing level of discomfort among many of the affected groups related to the risk assessment. This workshop is designed to improve the communication and risk perception among all of the parties involved.

Workshop outline

The theme of the workshop is the use of various modeling methods to create an integrated, statistically-based hazards assessment. Most models of volcanic processes treat specific defined events, rather than consider the wide range of possible scenarios that could occur. The latter approach will be the approach of this workshop. Instead of general presentations, speakers will address their topics from a point of view that facilitates the extraction of probabilistic outputs from their modeling methods. The objective is to provide data for certain key questions that will help to define bounds on decisions related to event-tree nodes that will be elicited from experts before the end of the workshop. As new questions or options may arise during the workshop itself, we will modify the prior event tree structure as the workshop progresses. It is hoped that input from community members and other stakeholders will contribute this work, in addition to the input from scientist.

Objective

The general objective of this workshop is to analyze the existing hazard maps and safety plans for Galeras and form a bridge connecting scientists, decision makers, and other stake holders to promote a better understanding of the hazards presented by Galeras and the measures needed for protection of people and property in the potentially threatened areas.

Specific goals

* Discuss existing hazard mapping and mitigation procedures at various volcanoes.
* Understand the physics related to phenomena of explosive volcanism (ash fall and flow).
* Use various modeling methods to create an integrated, statistically-based hazards assessment as a coherent approach to the generation of hazard maps.
* Understand more fully the hazards and vulnerabilities presented by Galeras  
* Communicate the views of all stakeholder groups with respect to the volcanic hazard.
* Develop a logic tree for hazard and risk assessment based on key questions provided by the workshop participants.