The ‘’’Volcano Disaster Assistance Program’’’ (VDAP) was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance after the eruption of Nevado del Ruiz in 1985. The volcanic eruption melted a glacier triggering a lahar that killed 23,000 people. It was determined that increased monitoring would make evacuating local populations much easier, saving lives. Today the program responds to volcanic crises around the world. The aim of the program is to assist in saving lives and property, to reduce economic losses, and to prevent a natural hazard becoming a natural disaster. VDAP are based in the Cascades Volcano Observatory, Washington State. VDAP channels its energy into four main activities; response to natural disaster, capacity building, training and research. Volocanology is increasingly being studied due to the severe impact it has around the world.
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Response
VDAP respond to ‘domestic’ eruptions. The VDAP team is relatively small and so it supported by USGS Volcano Hazards Program (VHP) when responding to large eruptions. The events in which VDAP have been involved are listed in a table below.
Preparation and Monitoring
Capacity building involves the development of education and monitoring in hazardous areas. The small group of scientists involved in the programme work on eruption forecasting and assessing the hazards in volcanically active areas. This is usually carried out when there is not a crisis to work on. This kind of work has been carried out in Central and South America since 1998, Papua New Guinea (1998-2000) and Indonesia since 2004.
Training
VDAP hold workshops and training courses around the world. Many of these involve remote sensing and Geographic information system (GIS) modelling. VDAP present a six-week international study of active volcanoes course in Hawaii training geologists and civil workers in how to monitor volcanoes.
Research
The programme works to support projects which improve the forecasting of eruptions. Examples of this include research at Pinatubo and Chaitén Volcano, Chile