Volcanic risk assessment in Sao Jorge, Azores (2022-05-06)

Activation date: 2022-05-06
Event type: Volcanic activity

Activation reason:

The island of São Jorge in the Azores archipelago (Portugal) has been on a V4 high alert since the 23rd March 2022 due to a seismic-volcanic crisis that started on the 19th of the same month, located from Ponta dos Rosais to Norte Pequeno - Silveira area. The most energetic earthquake of this crisis occurred on March 29th, with an epicenter at about 2 km SSW of Velas and a magnitude of 3.8 (Richter). So far, around 271 earthquakes felt by the population have been identified.Under such circunstances, the Autoridade Nacional de Emergência e Proteção Civil (ANEPC), on behalf of the Serviço Regional de Proteção Civil e Bombeiros dos Açores (SRPCBA), activated the Emergency Management Service – Risk and Recovery Mapping with the aim to produce a volcanic risk assessment in São Jorge. The assessment will provide the level of susceptibility estimation for population and infrastructures in the island, by simulating potential lava flow pathways, that will be used to support the emergency management operations, namely for planning of the mitigation and preparedness phases to deal with a possible eruptive event.This activation EMSN129 includes the following products:P01 - Reference dataset that consists of a Geodatabase containing the feature classes representing the up-to-date reference situation based on photointerpretation of VHR1 optical imagery from 2020-2021, and supported on available support data (OSM, Census, Cadastral, CLC, etc), including hydrology, toponyms, physiography, building footprints, transport, industry and utilities, LULC.P02 - Volcanic hazard assessment, consists in the production of Hazard maps through the modelling of the lava flows extents for each of the seven vent locations (lava sources indicated by the user) using the Q-LavHa model and the available DTM with a resolution of 0.5 m which was resampled to 5m for the modelling.P03 - Exposure to people and assets, results from the combination of reference dataset and hazard maps to provide the analysis of exposures and vulnerabilities over the population (low/high season), businesses and most relevant infrastructures affected by the potential lava flows. Main outcomes of the activation are vector data and maps containing reference information, population exposure (for low and high tourism seasons), and assets exposures relative to the seven different lava sources.Results show that the most damaging eruption would be in Velas with more exposed population and assets than for any other lava source location. The less damaging eruption would be originated in the Toledo lava source.

European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) (2022): Volcanic risk assessment in Sao Jorge, Azores (2022-05-06). European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) [Dataset] PID: http://data.europa.eu/89h/7ca9385f-7ca5-44a1-9b31-c0231be9ea52

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