Impacts

Impacts


Population growth has caused the progressive encroachment of urban development into higher risk areas, closer to volcanic centres, increasing the human exposure to volcanic ash fall events.

Infrastructure is critical to supporting modern societies, particularly in urban areas, where high population densities create high demand for services. These infrastructure networks and systems support urban living, and provide lifeline services upon which we depend for our health, education, transport and social networking. Infrastructure networks and services support a variety of facilities across a broad range of sectors.

Volcanic ash fall events can disrupt and or damage the infrastructure upon which society depends. Several recent eruptions have illustrated the vulnerability of urban areas that received only a few millimetres or centimetres of volcanic ash. This has been sufficient to cause disruption of transportation, electricity, water, sewage and storm water systems. Costs have been incurred from business disruption, replacement of damaged parts and insured losses. Ash fall impacts on critical infrastructure can also cause multiple knock-on effects, which may disrupt many different sectors and services.

Volcanic ash fall is physically, socially and economically disruptive. Volcanic ash can affect both proximal areas and areas many hundreds of kilometres from the source, and causes disruptions and losses in a wide variety of different infrastructure sectors. Impacts are dependent on: ash fall thickness; the duration of the ash fall; the grain size and chemistry of the ash; whether the ash is wet or dry; and any preparedness, management and prevention (mitigation) measures employed to reduce effects from the ash fall. Different sectors of infrastructure and society are affected in different ways and are vulnerable to a range of impacts or consequences. These are discussed in the following sections.