Quantifying damage and vulnerability for volcanic hazards

Reducing volcanic risk requires a comprehensive understanding of the potential impacts of volcanic hazards on various community elements, assets and critical infrastructure. This chapter considers systematic approaches to characterizing the interaction (impacts) between volcanic hazards and assets (broadly defined). Damage states provide a description of volcanic hazard impacts and can be used in pre- and post-eruption impact assessments. Fragility and vulnerability functions provide quantitative approaches for assessing impacts and can be used in conjunction with damage states to forecast likely impacts pre- and post-eruption. Fragility functions quantify the probability of reaching specific damage states, while vulnerability functions express mean damage or function loss. Despite challenges including limited data availability and discrepancies in hazard intensity measurements, these functions serve as critical links between hazard and risk assessments, informing disaster preparedness and response efforts and finding application in the insurance industry. Ongoing research is essential to refine these functions and improve impact, vulnerability and risk assessment accuracy.