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Project Aims
Several major cities in Turkey lie close to active volcanoes; the rapidly growing city of Kayseri, for example, lies at the foot of Erciyes Dagi. Around Turkey, millions of people actually live close enough to volcanoes that we would consider them as exposed to potential volcanic hazards. Volcanoes currently don’t get the attention we think they deserve, in Turkey and in many other countries. This is because many volcanoes sleep for decades or centuries between eruptions, so people tend to concentrate on the more frequent hazards like earthquakes and flooding. When volcanoes do awaken though, they have the potential for significant damage, disruption and destruction, across large areas. The TurkVolc project begins to address the need to understand Turkey’s volcanoes, their hazards and associated risk, and will improve Turkey’s resilience.
The TurkVolc project aims to make major improvements in Turkey’s preparedness for future volcanic emergencies, thereby increasing societal resilience:
Improve knowledge of Turkey's volcanoes
Turkey’s active volcanoes are being investigated, to develop a better understanding of their past activity, dates of eruptions, and potential future hazards.
Improve monitoring capacity in Turkey
Monitoring volcanoes for signs of activity is very important to understand whether they are reawakening, and when and where they might erupt. Both monitoring capacity and capability is being improved in Turkey.
Volcanic hazard assessment
Basic hazard assessments are being undertaken at Turkey’s volcanoes with the production of the first volcanic hazard maps in Turkey.
Risk assessment
Measures of population and infrastructure exposure are being coupled with the hazard assessments to help identify potential consequences of future eruptions, to help inform emergency management planning and preparedness.
Risk communication and education
Community resilience is being improved through the provision of advice and educational tools to the community, scientists, authorities and emergency managers.