Back to Naples Cities on Volcanoes (COV 10)

Details: Published: September 03 2018

The tenth Cities on Volcanoes congress officially opened today in Naples, in the presence of the top management of INGV. Until September 7, the volcanological scientific community will take stock of the contribution of multidisciplinary research and the Scientific Community - Society connection

Volcanologists from all over the world met today in Naples for the opening of the Cities on Volcanoes (COV 10) congress - Millennia of stratification between human life and volcanoes: strategies for coexistence, the international event scheduled until September 7, organized by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) in collaboration with the Department of Civil Protection (DPC), the Campania Region, the Municipality of Naples, the Vesuvius National Park, the University of Naples "Federico II ” and the National Association of Volcanology. The opening of the congress, which was held today at the Mostra d'Oltremare in Naples, was attended, among others, by the President of INGV Carlo Doglioni, the General Manager of INGV Maria Siclari, the Mayor of Naples Luigi De Magistris, the Mayor of Pozzuoli Vincenzo Figliolia and the Mayor of Ercolano Ciro Buonajuto. The Conference offers the opportunity to promote a link between the volcanological scientific community and those involved in territorial planning and emergency management, with the aim of building a place for comparison and integration of experiences between cities on volcanoes.

Organized under the aegis of the International Association of Volcanology IAVCEI (International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of Earth Interiors), the congress is held every two years, always in a location exposed to volcanic risk. This year it returns to Italy, twenty years after the first edition which was organized in Rome and Naples. The event includes 13 workshops, one of which directly on the Stromboli volcano and 2 field trips to visit the main active Italian volcanoes such as Vesuvius, Campi Flegrei, the Aeolian Islands and Etna, closely linked to the objectives of the Science and Technology Roadmap in support of what is foreseen the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. More than 1100 abstracts organized within 55 Sessions and 3 Symposia.

"The Cities on Volcanoes 10 congress", says Roberto Isaia, President of the Steering Committee COV 10 and INGV researcher "offers the opportunity to about 1000 participants, including scientists, Civil Protection operators, journalists and educators from over 50 countries around the world, to discuss strategies aimed at promoting a virtuous coexistence between man and volcanoes. The presentation of multidisciplinary research and direct experiences, including the story of the recent eruption in Hawaii, will focus attention on man's resilience to volcanic risk and how volcanoes have represented, and can represent, a resource rather than a problem ”.

The Metropolitan City of Naples, with more than 3 million people and a population density of about 2,700 inhabitants/km2, is the City on Volcanoes par excellence. With two active explosive volcanoes, Vesuvius and Campi Flegrei, and the volcanic island of Ischia, the Neapolitan area is one of the regions characterized by the highest volcanic risk in the world. “COV 10 in Naples represents an important appointment for the international community that is dedicated to the study of volcanic hazards and risks”, says the President of INGV Carlo Doglioni. “The Congress, in fact, wants to focus attention on the accumulation and ascent mechanisms of magmas that come from the earth's mantle and which produce a variety of volcanic phenomena on the surface, controlled in particular by the chemical composition, temperature and viscosity of the mantle melts. Each volcano carries a different level of danger and requires a specific human resilience. It is therefore necessary to monitor volcanic areas with increasing attention with all the modern analytical techniques available, from movements recordable by seismic stations, GPS data (global positioning system), satellite interferometry, hydrogeochemistry and fluid temperatures , up to the petrology of magmas, eruptive stratigraphy and tectonics, in order to produce reliable evolutionary models. Naples is a laboratory where scientific research is indispensable for conscious cohabitation with volcanic risk, an area where the millenary history of coexistence with Vesuvius, the Campi Flegrei and Ischia have profoundly affected culture and art, determining a peculiar philosophy of life, where fatalism has contributed to generating poetry, music, joy and melancholy in its inhabitants". The scientific program of the congress includes four days of work in parallel sessions, and a day of field studies, during which the participants will have the opportunity to visit the various volcanoes in Campania and to understand their complex relationships with the territory.

The researchers will discuss decision-making processes and emergency planning, on the issue of volcanoes in a dormant phase, and how long periods of quiet affect the awareness of resident communities and risk mitigation strategies; we will talk about urban planning and vulnerability in areas that, like Naples, are densely populated and exposed to volcanic risk. The communication of science in relation to volcanic risk and the role of scientists, territorial authorities and the mass media will also be discussed.

Alongside the scientific program, the parallel program which foresees: the meeting between the mayor of Naples and that of Kagoshima, in Japan, to seal a scientific twinning between two large cities exposed to volcanic risk; the exhibition of works produced by school students as part of risk education courses promoted by the Civil Protection Department and the Campania Region; the exhibition on the destruction of Mascali by the 1928 eruption of Etna. Congress-goers will also be able to visit the surveillance room of the Vesuvius Observatory. “The conference”, concludes the President of INGV Carlo Doglioni, “is also an opportunity for important collaborations with other Neapolitan cultural institutions: at the City of Science there will be an in-depth meeting, aimed at teachers, on the famous Vesuvian eruption of 79 AD and on the man-volcano relationship in prehistory; at the MADRE Museum of Contemporary Art, instead it was possible to insert information of a volcanological nature to comment on the temporary exhibition Madre Pompeii @ Mother. Archaeological matter. The Collections (extended from 24 September 2018 to 7 January 2019)”.

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