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Volcano Web Shorts #6
Volcano Societal Impacts
Featuring Angie Diefenbach

Angie Diefenbach:
My name is Angie Diefenbach, I’m a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey Cascades Volcano Observatory.

I use various geospatial data sets and GIS, Geographic Information Systems software to study volcanic eruptions and their impacts on society.

The US and its territories are home to about 170 active volcanoes, which means that millions of our citizens are at risk from volcanic hazards.

Traditionally as geologists we have looked at the physical base hazards of volcanoes by mapping out where previous hazards have gone now we’re trying to look at what the societal impacts are by seeing what is in those hazard zones.

I take hazards assessments that were produced by the USGS and the hazard zones and put them into a GIS and basically just a mapping and I overlay these boundaries on top of all this data and you will see what communities intersect these hazard boundaries. We can identify the number of people, where police stations are, hospitals, fire stations, infrastructure such as major roads, pipelines, railroads, different transportation networks, business data, employees and the sales volume which will help us better assess the economic impact of the next eruption.

Knowing the number and distribution of societal assets within hazard zones will help officials better prepare response strategies and it will help communities prepare for and recover from future volcanic eruptions.
(END)

Title: Volcano Web Shorts 6: Societal Impacts of Volcanism

Description:

USGS geologist, Angie Diefenbach, describes how she uses GIS, (Geographic Information Systems) software to study volcanic eruptions and their impacts on society.

Location: Vancouver, WA, USA

Date Taken: 5/10/2012

Length: 2:04

Video Producer: Stephen M. Wessells , U.S. Geological Survey

Note: This video has been released into the public domain by the U.S. Geological Survey for use in its entirety. Some videos may contain pieces of copyrighted material. If you wish to use a portion of the video for any purpose, other than for resharing/reposting the video in its entirety, please contact the Video Producer/Videographer listed with this video. Please refer to the USGS Copyright section for how to credit this video.

Additional Video Credits:

A Production of: USGS Volcano Hazards Program
USGS Office of Communications & Publishing

Produced by: Stephen M. Wessells

Executive Producers: John Ewert
Thomas Murray

Co-Producer: Carolyn Driedger

On-Camera Expert: Angie Diefenbach

Camera: Richard Lyons

Editor: Haydon Lane

Additional Photographs & Video: Dave Tucker
USGS Numerous

Post-Production Assistant: Jennifer Weible

Graphics: Lisa Faust

Source:

For more information go to: Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO) Site

File Details:

• YouTube version *
• Text transcript

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Tags: 170USAVolcanoes AngieDiefenbach GISSocietalImpacts HazardZones ResponseStrategies SocietyHazards USGS VolcanicHazards VolcanicRisk VolcanoEconomicImpact VolcanoGIS VolcanoSocietalImpacts Volcanoes eruption geologist volcano