1.9B Modifying vulnerability

• Community preparedness =

  Advantages

  • Low cost, often implemented by NGOs
  • Can save lives through small actions

  Disadvantages:

  • Does not prevent property damage
  • Harder to implement in isolated rural areas
• Adaption =

  Advantages

  • Would save both lives and property

  Disadvantages

  • High population densities prevent it
  • Disrupts people's traditional homes and traditions
• High-tech scientific monitoring:

  Advantages:

  • In most cases, predicting an eruption is possible
  • Warnings and evacuation save lives

  Disadvantages

  • Costly, so not all developing world volcanoes are monitored
  • May suffer from 'cry wolf syndrome' if predictions are not accurate
  • This is where predictions (and evacuation) are wrong, so people are less lively to believe the next one. 
  • Does not prevent property damage
• Modifying vulnerability means increasing the resilience of a community to increase their capacity to cope. In many cases, prediction, warning, and evacuation are used to move people out of harm's way.