Chapter 16 Volcanic hazard vulnerability on São Miguel Island, Azores

Abstract

In recent years much progress has been made in researching a wide variety of extreme events on São Miguel. In addition there are a number of volcano-related risks that impact upon the people of São Miguel. Some of these may occur both before and during volcanic emergencies (e.g. earthquakes), whilst others render São Miguel dangerous even when its volcanoes are not erupting (e.g. flooding, landslides, tsunamis and health impacts, especially the effects of CO 2 seepage into dwellings). In this chapter we first define what vulnerability means to the people of São Miguel, and relate this to the cultural and economic characteristics of the island. The following aspects of vulnerability are discussed: (a) physical (i.e. housing, settlement and the characteristics of evacuation routes and plans); (b) demographic and economic; and (c) social and cultural and perceptual (i.e. whether people have an accurate cognition of risk). Particular areas of concern relate to housing: the identification of isolated dwellings that would be difficult to evacuate; the vulnerability/ resilience of evacuation routes following recent infrastructure improvements; characteristics of the island's transient population; management of livestock under emergency conditions; local leadership roles; and educational outreach.

Risk perception and organizational capacity building in the Azores (Percepción del riesgo y desarrollo organizacional de capacidades de las Azores)

“…Miguel Island has three active central volcanoes: Fogo, Furnas and Sete Cidades. Future scenarios for eruptions on the island, based on historic volcanism, relate to plinian and sub-plinian explosive eruptions, which can cause pyroclastic flow/surges, ash fall, debris flow, earthquakes, floods, landslides, tsunamis and CO2 seepage (Wallenstein, Chester, Coutinho, Duncan, & Dibben, 2015). Other works indicate the occurrence of blocks, bombs, lava flows (Ferreira, Gomes, Gaspar, & Guest, 2015) and lapilli (Gaspar et al, 2015).…”

Chapter 1 Volcanic geology of São Miguel Island (Azores Archipelago): introduction

“…Diffuse discharge of gases in parts of the island presents a threat to the health of the inhabitants, this being considered by Viveiros et al (2015a) for CO 2 and by Silva et al (2015b) for radon. Wallenstein et al (2015a) discuss the vulnerability and resilience of the population of São Miguel in relation to both the hazards and possible responses that assist in their mitigation.…”