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Volcanic hazard risk assessment for the RiskScape program, with test application in Rotorua, New Zealand, and Mammoth Lakes, USA.

This thesis presents a new GIS-based scenario volcanic risk assessment model called RiskScape
Volcano (RSV) that has been designed for the RiskScape program to advance the field of volcanic
risk assessment. RiskScape is a natural hazards risk assessment software tool being developed in New
Zealand by GNS Science and NIWA. When integrated into RiskScape, RSV will add proximal
volcanic hazard risk assessment capability, and enhanced inventory design; it presently operates
outside of RiskScape by combining volcanic hazard models’ output spatial hazard intensity (hazard
maps) with inventory databases (asset maps) in GIS software to determine hazard exposure, which is
then combined with fragility functions (relationships between hazard intensity and expected damage
ratios) to estimate risk. This thesis consists of seven publications, each of which comprises a part of
the development and testing of RSV: 1) results of field investigation of impacts to agriculture and
infrastructure of the 2006 eruption of Merapi Volcano, Indonesia; 2) agricultural fragility functions
for tephra damage in New Zealand based on the observations made at Merapi; 3) examination of wind
patterns above the central North Island, New Zealand for better modeling of tephra dispersal with the
ASHFALL model; 4) a description of the design, components, background, and an example
application of the RSV model; 5) test of RSV via a risk assessment of population, agriculture, and
infrastructure in the Rotorua District from a rhyolite eruption at the Okataina Volcanic Centre; 6) test
of RSV via a comparison of risk to critical infrastructure in Mammoth Lakes, California from an
eruption at Mammoth Mountain volcano versus an eruption from the Inyo craters; and 7) a survey of
volcanic hazard awareness in the tourism sector in Mammoth Lakes. Tests of the model have
demonstrated that it is capable of providing valid and useful risk assessments that can be used by local
government and emergency management to prioritise eruption response planning and risk mitigation
efforts. RSV has provided the RiskScape design team with a more complete quantitative volcanic risk
assessment model that can be integrated into RiskScape and used in New Zealand and potentially
overseas.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:canterbury.ac.nz/oai:ir.canterbury.ac.nz:10092/1950
Date January 2008
CreatorsKaye, Grant David
PublisherUniversity of Canterbury. Geological Sciences
Source SetsUniversity of Canterbury
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic thesis or dissertation, Text
RightsCopyright Grant David Kaye, http://library.canterbury.ac.nz/thesis/etheses_copyright.shtml
RelationNZCU

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