Understanding volcanic risk takes time: working towards effective risk management through cross-organisational partnership between Papua New Guinea and Australia  

Authors / CoAuthors

Miller, V. | Itikarai, I. | Nancarrow, S. | McKee, C. | Johnson, R.W. | Bear-Crozier, A.N.

Abstract

Papua New Guinea and Australia have a long-standing and ongoing association in understanding volcanic risk. The Rabaul Volcanological Observatory (RVO) in Papua New Guinea (PNG) was established by the Australian Government, following the devastating 1937 Rabaul eruption, which killed over 500 people and caused widespread damage. The Australian Bureau of Mineral Resources (BMR) re-established the RVO in 1950 following World War II and managed its operations until PNG independence in 1975. Geoscience Australia (GA) has since continued to hold strong links with RVO. When the major eruption of Rabaul volcano commenced in September 1994, the Australian Aid programme approached GA to provide emergency assistance to the RVO during this period. This led to the development of the Papua New Guinea-Australia initiative the Volcanological Service Support Project (VSSP) in 1995/96. Here we present a brief overview of the activities carried out in collaboration between the Papua New Guinea and Australian Governments over the past twenty years, drawing on examples from the VSSP to demonstrate a multi-layered approach to Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). With components spanning monitoring, modeling, information management and community awareness, and participants ranging from individual community members to national agencies, each element has contributed to our understanding of volcanic hazard and risk in PNG and the Asia-Pacific. We highlight some of the milestones of the past twenty years and examine how the long history of past activities has shaped the design of the current cross-organisational DRR partnership.

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79235

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• External Publication

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

• Volcanology

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2014-01-01T00:00:00

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