VeTools: Development and Implementation of e-tools for volcanic hazard assessment and risk management
The main goal pursued by the proposal was to create an integrated software platform specially designed to assess and manage volcanic risk. The project facilitated interaction and cooperation between scientists and Civil Protection Agencies in order to share, unify, and exchange procedures, methodologies and technologies to effectively reduce the impacts of volcanic disasters by improving assessment and management of volcanic risk.
The project aimed at:
1) improving and developing volcanic risk assessment and management capacities in active volcanic regions;
2) developing universal methodologies, scenario definitions, response strategies and alert protocols to cope with the full range of volcanic threats;
3) improving quantitative methods and tools for vulnerability and risk assessment
4) defining thresholds and protocols for civil protection.
The target of the project were volcanic islands as they represent highly vulnerable natural and socioeconomic systems and constitute an important part of Europe that geographically extend the boundaries of the community around the world. The project concentrated on the eastern Atlantic volcanic islands (Canaries, Açores, and Iceland), which cover a wide range of volcanological and socioeconomic scenarios, with the aim of exporting the results obtained to the other European volcanic islands, but also to the continental active volcanic regions.