This research day was co-sponsored by the AXA Research Fund, the Cabot Institute and the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol and held at M Shed in Bristol.

Here we launched Kathy Cashman’s AXA-sponsored Research Chair at Bristol.

This one-day event explored the multiple facets of environmental risk through the theme of volcanoes and society.

Challenges to developing sustainable societies include not only understanding the physical processes responsible for generating specific hazards, but also the impacts of those hazards on all aspects of the built and human environments. Key to bridging between physical process and impact is development of knowledge and communication networks capable of bringing together practitioners of different disciplines.

In the morning, we helped foster interaction among AXA-funded graduate students and postdoctoral researchers by combining a Master Class taught by Kathy Cashman with poster presentations from the students.

In the afternoon, we motivated cross-disciplinary conversations among a broad group of students and professionals using three themed sessions, each with two speakers and a chair:

1. Volcanology and climate
2. Modern impacts of volcanic eruptions
3. Social perspectives on volcanic disasters.

Chaired round table discussions followed each session providing the opportunity for small groups to explore different themes.

Kathy Cashman ended the afternoon session with a plenary talk, which was followed by a drinks reception for all participants at Bordeaux Quay.

Downloads

Full programme flyer (PDF, 181kB) [PDF; 195 KB]

Kathy Cashman's Master Class - powerpoint presentation (PDF, 895kB) [PDF, 895.8 KB]

Kathy Cashman's plenary talk - powerpoint presentation [PDF, 7.5 MB]

Photos from the day - Flickr slideshow

AXA Research Fund presentation (PDF, 2,553kB) [PDF, 2.5 MB]

Guest speaker presentations

Volcanoes and Society: Geology and climate

• Paul Valdes; University of Bristol  Modelling the climatic influence of volcanoes (PDF, 1,765kB) [PDF, 1.7 MB]
• Dave Pyle, University of Oxford  Volcanism, climate and society: feedbacks and sensitivities (PDF, 1,741kB) [PDF, 1.7 MB]

Volcanoes and Society: Modern Impacts

• Jonty Rougier; University of Bristol Closing the gap between the hazard and the risk (PDF, 2,755kB) [PDF, 2.7 MB]
• Katsu Goda; University of Bristol  2011 Tsunami in Tohoku, Japan: Planning and design of vertical evacuation buildings (PDF, 1,455kB) [PDF, 1.4 MB]

Volcanoes and Society: Societal and historical perspectives

• Caroline Williams, University of Bristol Natural hazard events in the Spanish colonial archive: Building an interdisciplinary research collaboration (PDF, 3,081kB) [PDF, 1.1 MB]
• Susanna Jenkins, University of Bristol  Collecting empirical impact data: The Merapi 2010 eruption (PDF, 2,026kB) [PDF, 2 MB]