The overarching aim of this theme is to bring together volcano monitoring institutions, civil protection agencies and volcanological research institutions to better prepare for and respond to volcanic crises.  This will be done through the development of new strategies to facilitate sharing of best practices in communication of hazard, between scientists and authorities on topics of scenarios, probabilistic vs. deterministic methods and uncertainty. The project will establish a crisis Management Task Force (Scientific advisory group) and identify available reserves of equipment that could be deployed on under monitored volcanoes in times of crisis.

The Volcanic crisis preparedness and risk management theme is centred around research and collaboration on the following topics:

• Identification of hazard scenarios, multi-hazard assessments, and pre-event impact assessments
• New strategies to facilitate sharing and promotion of best practices, and communication between scientists and society (including decision-makers, population and media)
• Establishment of a European expert team of back-up scientists and infrastructure to respond to eruption crises

Volcanic crisis preparedness and risk management activities include:

• Collaboration between volcano monitoring institutions and European Civil Protection agencies for management of volcanic hazard
• Development of a complete European Catalogue of European Volcanoes and related volcanic hazards, and guidelines for a Volcano Monitoring Status level system
• Development and compilation of tools for hazard assessment and risk management
• Physical and virtual access to research infrastructures and tools including on-site modelling resources, hazard assessment tools and the Volcano Dynamics Computational Centre

The volcanic crisis preparedness and risk management theme is primarily the subject of the following Work Packages:

• Collaboration between volcano monitoring institutions and European Civil Protection agencies for management of volcanic hazard – WP 7 led by British Geological Survey
• A version 1.0 of European Catalogue of Volcanoes and Volcanic Areas (ECV) and related volcanic hazards, and guidelines for a European Volcano Monitoring Status system – WP11 led by Icelandic Meteorological Office
• Exploitation of tools for hazard assessment and risk management – WP12 led by Instituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia