the project • main headings • edurisk.it
Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are recurrent dangers that Italy has always had to reckon with in the past and will in the future. Many people think that there’s very little – if at all - to do against these natural calamities. We at EDURISK do not agree: there’s definitely much to do. Only, to do it properly, all people concerned must join in a common effort from, because a wide range of abilities are necessary. Researchers, teachers and their students, responsible citizens everywhere: everyone can help, by pooing their resources in a responsible, informed way.
The EDURISK project was designed as a place where people from all walks of life can meet and get involved in an common plan whose aim is getting acquainted with the multifarious facets of seismic/volcanic risk and the manifold ways in which we can protect ourselves against it.
Knowledge is what we need most, if we want to protect ourselves against natural hazards. Getting reliable, up-to-date, factual information on the natural events most likely to affect one’s home is the first step towards starting to plan how to forestall and lessening their evil consequences.
A score years ago, this basic idea brought together a few researchers attached to GNDT, the National Group for Protection against Earthquakes. They started cudgelling their brains to find out the best way to disseminate information on natural hazards, and in the end, thanks to the backing of the National Department for Civil Protection, they brought into being the EDURISK project.
The EDURISK project, first submitted to GNDT in 1999, was funded in 2002, after GNDT had been subsumed into INGV, the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia. The original allocation expired in 2004, but it was since renewed twice, in 2005-2006 and in 2008-2009.
The main commitment to the EDURISK project is borne out by two leading Italian research institutes: the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (Milan, Bologna, Rome, Naples and Catania branches) and the Osservatorio Geofisico Sperimentale of Trieste.
The aim of the EDURISK project is developing educational tools. This task is carried out by the combined efforts of an eclectic group of experts from many walks of life: geologists, seismologists, seismic hazard managers, seismic engineers, historical seismologists, psychologists, pedagogists, scholastic and multimedial editors and publishers from the leading Italian firms of Giunti Progetti Educativi and Prospero, children/young adult book writers, illustrators, cartoonists.
