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The University of Geneva hosted the inaugural International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI) - Global Volcano Model Network (GVM) Workshop in Geneva, Switzerland from June 27-29.

More than 30 international experts in the field of volcanic hazard, exposure, vulnerability and risk assessment participated in the workshop to evaluate the state of the art of risk assessment in volcanology, investigate current gaps and identify research priorities.

The workshop tackled three thematic areas: i) current perspectives in volcanic risk assessment, ii) how to analyze volcanic vulnerability and iii) how to combine volcanic hazard and risk. Luis Martins, GEM Physical Risk Engineer presented and discussed the differences and similarities between earthquake and volcanic impact assessment. He shared key vulnerability aspects that need to be assessed for a comprehensive and efficient risk assessment based on the recently completed GEM’s global earthquake vulnerability database project, which he led from 2017-2018.

“Earthquake risk assessment and volcano risk assessment share many key aspects, and it is clear that close collaboration between both communities can greatly improve the understanding of both hazards,” Luis concludes at the end of his presentation.

GEM is actively pursuing collaboration with other peril groups in particular the volcano hazard and risk assessment community through the CRAVE and the GED4ALL projects (global exposure database), to share its long experience in developing ‘open data and open tools’ to promote global risk information sharing. GEM’s participation in this first international workshop further strengthens its commitment to contribute and lead the global efforts to make risk information across perils accessible to the DRR community and its stakeholders.