To What Extent Can Preparedness Mitigate the Effects of Volcanic Hazards?

To what extent can preparedness mitigate the effects of volcanic hazards?

Whittow in 1980 defines a hazard as a “perceived natural event which has the potential to threaten both life and property, and a disaster is the realisation of this hazard.” Earth hazards can therefore include all natural events including earthquakes, volcanoes, flooding and mass movement. Due to the very nature of these events mitigating can be more successful for hazards such as volcanoes which are arguably more predicable than earthquakes and flash flooding. Despite the advances over the past few decades there is still no sure way in earth hazard prediction, and therefore mitigation – and the success remains very much dependent upon a number of factors including money available, and the number of vulnerable individuals.

A volcanic hazard is a threat to life and/or infrastructure due to volcanic activity and related phenomena. The severity of the impacts caused by the tectonic event is originally down to the magnitude of the event and the hazards it produces. In the case of volcanic events the factors include: the type of volcano and lava and the hazards associated which include lava flows, lahars, pyroclastic flows, volcanic landslides, tephra, lake overturns and volcanic gases. Many countries have started preparing for volcanic events by monitoring and preparing for them in order to try and mitigate the effects of the potential hazards that are associated. Following volcanic disasters where the effects of the hazards have been extremely widespread, such as Eyjafallajökull (E15) eruption in 2010, other countries which did not normally experience the effects of tectonic activity have had to start implementing volcanic monitoring systems and response plans to mitigate the social, environmental and especially economical impacts on these secondary countries. Preparedness for volcanic hazards includes building codes, flood control structures, warnings of potential hazards by government agencies and disaster planning (e.g. evacuation and emergency relief). Despite these measures, volcanic hazards can still result in a major loss of human life and economical damage. Although the measures are put into place to decrease the vulnerability of a population to the hazards the population themselves (e.g. wealth, economic development and density) also influence the impact of the tectonic event. 

E15 is a stratovolcano with a caldera located on the constructive plate boundary between the North American plate and the Eurasian plate (mid-Atlantic Ridge). The hazards created by this eruption were lava flows of more than 1000 degrees Celsius, flooding caused by the melting of the 200m thick glacier and an ash plume reaching 11,000m into the air reaching the stratosphere. Iceland is prone to tectonic activity due to the mid-Atlantic Ridge running through the island. The Icelandic Meteorological (IMO) monitors earth movements, water conditions and weather and issue warnings accordingly. Although they have a good warning system where residents are issued with a 30 minute warning via SMS, the warning was only on a national level. Unfortunately due to the anticyclone weather around the EU at the time and the high velocity jet streams between the troposhere and stratosphere, the ash cloud was spread over Europe. Therefore although Iceland had an amazing response system in place to mitigate the effects of volcanic hazards (mainly social and demographic), the rest of Europe did not, thus turning the future preparation schemes to an international perspective instead of just a national scale response (the EU as a trading bloc has a high GDP per capita of $24400 meaning in future they have the collective financial capacity to cope with emergencies such as this). Due to there being no international scale response original, the ash cloud caused a dramatic economic impact mainly due to the eight day fly ban. This was imposed due to the fine grained ash in the dispersed ash plume, being a hazard for airplanes as it affects their internal systems as it turns to a glassy substance due to the heat of the jet engines. Air lines lost up to US$200 million each day due to post-poned flights, market shares and stocks in tourism fell by 4% and Kenya lost up to $3.5 million a day as a result of lost exports. In the case of Iceland and the 2010 E15 eruption, preparedness and planning did mitigate the effects of the volcanic hazards however; an accident of the hazards spreading caused impacts in countries that had no warning or planning.