Volcano Observatory Best Practices
One of the three pillars of WOVO, the Volcano Observatory Best Practices (VOBP) program runs a series of workshops for personnel of volcano observatories (VO) from all over the world. Every few years, observatory specialists can meet in person at VOBP meetings to discuss and share their experiences with monitoring, data interpretation, forecasting, and communications. Notwithstanding the large differences in funding, culture and legal mandates among different volcano observatories, these workshops allow valuable discussions and information-sharing among the world’s observatory staffs. The developed practices are neither rules nor prescriptions, but are standards and concepts for careful consideration during the growth and development of volcano observatories.
VOBP workshops were held in 2011 and 2013 in Erice (Italy), in 2016 in Vancouver, WA (USA), in 2019 in Mexico City (Mexico) and in 2023 in Pucon (Chile). The themes discussed so far have covered short-term and medium/long-term hazard forecast, communication of volcanic hazard and communication from volcano observatories, and operations during crisis. The next workshop is being organized for 2026 in Italy and will touch the theme of “Decision-support tools for volcano observatories”. The VOBP workshop series were initiated by the USGS (USA) and INGV (Italy), and are currently co-sponsored by USGS, INGV, and IAVCEI.
Resources
Pallister, J., Papale, P., Eichelberger, J., Newhall, C., Mandeville, C., Nakada, S., Marzocchi, W., Loughlin, S., Jolly, G., Ewert, J., & Selva, J. (2019). Volcano observatory best practices (VOBP) workshops—A summary of findings and best-practice recommendations. Journal of Applied Volcanology, 8(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13617-019-0082-8
Lowenstern, J. B., Wallace, K., Barsotti, S., Sandri, L., Stovall, W., Bernard, B., Privitera, E., Komorowski, J.-C., Fournier, N., Balagizi, C., & Garaebiti, E. (2022). Guidelines for volcano-observatory operations during crises: Recommendations from the 2019 volcano observatory best practices meeting. Journal of Applied Volcanology, 11(1), 3. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13617-021-00112-9