COST C26 Vesuvius


For the Prague (April, 2007), Trieste (January, 2008), and Vilnius (April, 2008) meetings of working groups pertaining to the European Union sponsored initiative "COST C26: Urban Habitat Constructions Under Catastrophic Events", I prepared the following technical presentations. COST initiatives aim at promoting scientific collaborations between EU member states.

In Prague I presented the volcanic risk of Vesuvius and in Trieste the objectives of VESUVIUS 2000 project which aims at mitigating this risk, in the hope that C26 engineers would be willing to develop some of the structural mechanics objectives on this project. As a result the working group 4 engineers defined in Prague a Vesuvius case study and there was a great deal of enthusiasm during the Trieste meeting where we defined a professional work plan. After the Trieste meeting the University of Naples engineers who are controlling C26 refused to promote the Trieste work plan and I was excluded from C26. This work plan had the potential of producing significant advances in risk management, and was thus "too dangerous" to implement.

I am including here my Prague, Trieste, and Vilnius presentations in the hope that the ideas in these presentations will find those who are willing to confront the Vesuvius problem seriously.




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