Publié le 1 octobre 2020 Mis à jour le 14 septembre 2021

The IAVCEI Volcanic Surveillance and Crisis Management Award, attributed every two years, honors the personnel from institutions or organizations responsible for monitoring volcanoes (volcano observatories and/or other institutions) that have made a remarkable contribution to the mitigation of volcanic hazards and volcanic risks.

Volcano monitoring, eruption forecasting, and the mitigation of volcanic hazards are key objectives of volcanologists and the duty of volcano observatories worldwide. Criteria for eligibility include: successful hazard assessment and mitigation efforts, and/or effective volcano surveillance and eruption forecasting and/or effective crisis management.

The IAVCEI Award Committee has decided to attribute the 2020 IAVCEI Award for Volcano Surveillance and Crisis Management (VSCM) to the Instituto Geofísico, Escuela Politécnica Nacional (IG-EPN) of Ecuador (Quito). The decision was communicated to the Director of IG-EPN, Dr. Silvana Hidalgo.

Through this award, the Committee wishes to honor the long-lived initiatives and advances of IG-EPN in developing high-level surveillance and international research studies of Ecuadorian volcanoes, in promoting close collaborations with the communities affected by eruptions, as well as with stakeholders and decision-makers at local, regional and national levels, and for its very successful efforts in coping with several important volcanic crises in both continental Ecuador and the Galapagos archipelago over the past two decades. The IAVCEI recognition of scientific and monitoring excellence by IG-EPN in Ecuador can also be taken as an encouragement to the ongoing developments of volcano research and monitoring in whole Latin America, regionally represented within the ALVO (Asociación Latinoamericana de Volcanología).

Initially planned to occur physically this month during the Covid-19, conference in Crete (now postponed to June 2021), the award ceremony will be soon organized in virtual mode. The date and time schedule will be communicated and people willing to attend will have to register.