Abstract

FERRES, Dolors; ESCOBAR, Rudiger P.  and  BOWMAN, Luke. Reflections of volcanologists about their professional role in volcanic risk management in the context of Latin America. Rev. Geol. Amér. Central [online]. 2015, n.52, pp.9-31. ISSN 0256-7024.

The strengths and common challenges faced by Latin American volcanologists that assume a variety of roles in the volcanic risk reduction context were discussed in the workshop "PASI 2011: Open Vent Volcanoes ". The event was held in Costa Rica with the participation of professionals from most countries of the American Pacific coast plus Argentina, the UK, Norway and Sweden. Several issues were specifically addressed, which allowed to discuss needs in five topics: 1) Lack of financial, human and technical resources at the observatories in the Latin American region; 2) Governmental and non-governmental programs' cooperation between technical and academic organizations; 3) Need for regional coordination, 4) The role of volcanologists as communicators and their interaction with other stakeholders in volcanic risk management, and 5) The contribution of the social sciences and the creation of multidis-ciplinary groups in the volcanological observatories. The Pacific margin of the American continent is an area highly exposed to volcanic activity, including some of the most important cities in the continent. Nevertheless, the institutions in charge of studying and monitoring the volcanic activi¬ty and hazards in many of the countries of this region face severe limitations to carry out their work. For the majority of Latin American countries, the large number of potentially active volcanoes and the reduced number of volcanologists who work in their monitoring, become one of the main limitations. The cooperation between observatories, and with universities and research centers, has helped to cover this need, at least partially. Beyond their scientific and technical role as physical and natural sciences experts, the volcanologists have also been involved in tasks that require the deve¬lopment of other skills, mainly as communicators of information related to volcanic risk. This has led to an increase in multidisciplinary collaboration with scientists from the social field. However, there are still large challenges that need to be addressed in the near future. The contributions of the discussion sustained at the workshop can act as a starting point for future forums and actions aimed at reducing risk associated with volcanic activity.

Keywords : volcano observatories; Latin America; roles; risk management; strengths and weaknesses.

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