Risk management issues in tourist regions with explosive volcanism: The Teide's 2004 unrest, Canary Islands

Abstract

Volcanic crisis management in small and densely populated islands is extremely complex. Preparedness is critical to give an adequate response to volcanic unrest and reduce economic losses. However, such preparedness takes time, and involves a variety of groups of people and institutions, sometimes not only because of the requirements of knowledge with respect to self-protection but also because people must be made to change their understanding of the environment. Experience is vital if preparedness is to be improved meaning that the society at risk and the institutions involved in the management sometimes have to face eruptive process. A key factor here is the magnitude and behavior of eruptive events, how these are understood by people and decision-makers, plus the ability to use them as real-life drills.Lower-medium magnitude eruptive events may help to better understand how these natural processes work but may give the impression that such events are easy to manage. Large eruptive events without preparedness can be catastrophic, and may be arduous to recover from as a result. The idiosyncrasy of the society at risk plays a significant role here, thus improvements vary worldwide.In the present study, we address the initial situation in Tenerife (The Canary Islands) in 2004 and the local people's resulting response, while addressing other situations such as the pressure exerted by international tour-operators or the tourist industry in general, the conflicting views of the scientists and how these affected the people, together with an overview of the management of the seismic catalog in the Canary Islands as a key factor in volcanic crisis management. Current achievements will be compared to the situation given in 2004.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on rural tourism in Czechia Preliminary considerations

“…war or terrorism (Žuromskaité & Nagaj, 2018), natural disasters such as earthquakes (Chung-Hung & Cheng-Wu, 2010), floods, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions (Ramis et al, 2019) and forest fires. In addition, crime (Ferreira & Harmse, 2000) and health risks, especially infectious diseases, can have an effect.…”

Strategies for the development of volcanic hazard maps in monogenetic volcanic fields: the example of La Palma (Canary Islands)

“…To keep collaboration alive, it is important to conduct drills where scientific groups identify the possible outcomes of volcanic scenarios, to hold frequent meetings and to constantly interact while the hazard maps are under development (Marrero et al 2015). However, in the Canary Islands this strategy was not easy to apply in 2013 although some significant advances have been accomplished since then (Ortiz et al 2018).…”

“…In Marrero et al (2015) and Ortiz et al (2018) there is an extensive study of volcanic risk management in the Canary Islands and how it has evolved over the last 20 years. Although significant progress has been made, there is still much room for improvement in risk management due to the difficulties that are presented when carrying out the task in small and populated islands (McGuire et al 2009).…”

“…In the first section, we described the most important terms used in volcanic hazard and risk assessment and how we understood them. This was important given the complex contextual situation of communication between Civil Protection and research groups still present in the Canary Islands (Marrero et al 2015;Ortiz et al 2018).…”

“…Our methodology was specifically designed for Civil Protection professionals as a tool to improve their understanding of volcanic activity and their capacity to design mitigation strategies. In the Canary Islands, there are still some pending problems related to volcanic crisis management that complicate this process (see, Marrero et al (2015); Ortiz et al (2018)). The methodology was also designed to be used in small and high-risk monogenetic volcanic fields where people live within the VOA.…”