Innovation and impact on Science and Society
Damage caused by seismic and volcanic activity has had a tremendous impact on the economy of affected countries. Even moderate-size earthquakes (i.e., M~6) can be catastrophic when they strike large urban agglomerations with poor building construction practice. The potential impact of a Plinian eruption hitting Naples or Santorini would also be severe. Saving lives and property are not the only issues at stake in densely populated and sometimes overcrowded Europe. According to UNESCO, European countries host 2/3 of the known cultural heritage of the entire globe. The cultural heritage of southern European cities located in earthquake-prone regions is particularly vulnerable. Mitigation of the risk to populations, the built environment and the cultural heritage of Europe relies upon our being able to accurately assess the (seismic, volcanic, tsunami and landslide) level of hazard. This in turn depends on our understanding of the processes that drive earthquakes and volcanoes. Advances in this understanding largely rely on strategic investments in research infrastructures at the national and European level.
The social impact of the activities promoted and coordinated in EPOS in terms of disaster prevention and mitigation is evident. Indeed, the prompt and continuous availability of high quality data will open new horizons for the understanding of the physical processes responsible for earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, surface and tectonic processes, and tsunamis. This in turn will support the implementation of accurate predictive modelling of temporal and spatial evolution of physical phenomena. Access to data will accelerate the discovery of novel uses of Earth science results for societal benefit. It will also lead to new developments in disaster prevention research thus being invaluable for improving hazard assessment and national planning and forecasting.
The EPOS infrastructure will contribute to information dissemination, education and training. It will provide universities and young scientists with unrestricted on-line access to an enormous wealth of observational data, laboratory experiments, computational software and facilities in solid Earth sciences. The EPOS infrastructure will also facilitate the development of advanced educational material, i.e. e-learning, as its e-infrastructure will be based on global and open standards.
The added value for Europe and the innovation resulting from EPOS's construction consist of: