*************************** From: David Johnston <David.Johnston@xxxxxxxxxx> *************************** Dear colleagues, We would like to draw your attention to the session VS012 "Cities on Volcanoes: looking at the links between volcanology and communities issues around volcanoes" to be held during the IUGG General Assembly in Perugia, Italy, 2-13 July, 2007. Conveners: Jan Lindsay, Institute of Earth Science and Engineering & School of Geography, Geology & Environmental Science, University of Auckland, New Zealand Email: j.lindsay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx David Johnston, Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences, New Zealand Email: david.johnston@xxxxxxxxxx Giovanni Orsi, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia ? Osservatorio Vesuviano,, Naples, Italy Email orsi@xxxxxxxxxx For additional information on the IUGG general assembly 2007 visit http://www.iugg2007perugia.it/ The abstract deadline is 31 January, 2007 A description of the session is provided below. Urban vulnerability to natural hazards is one of the most underestimated issues in urban development. By 2050, the world population is expected to grow by three billion people. Almost all this growth will take place in developing countries, and particularly within their cities and towns. By more than doubling the urban population, large numbers of people will be concentrated in megacities and their increasingly fragile landscape, with huge impacts on the natural resources surrounding them. There are currently almost 450 cities worldwide with a population of more than one million inhabitants. The stresses and strains of rapid urbanization are nowhere more apparent than in developing countries. From today to 2025 about 80% of the world?s urban population will be concentrated in developing countries. Resulting high population densities will increasingly place more people at risk to hazards, particularly volcanic hazards. The Cities and Volcanoes session will explore the links between the volcanological community, emergency managers and city officials. It will focus on the role of multi-disciplinary applied research and need for collaboration between physical and social scientists in reducing volcanic risk and improving community resilience to volcanic hazards. ============================================================== To unsubscribe from the volcano list, send the message: signoff volcano to: listserv@xxxxxxx, or write to: volcano-request@xxxxxxxx To contribute to the volcano list, send your message to: volcano@xxxxxxxx Please do not send attachments. ==============================================================
