The use of geoevents in the risk management of Wastewater Treatments

Volcanic eruptions can endanger human health and threat structures, critical infrastructures and lifelines (such as wastewater treatments, electricity networks, etc.), even relatively moderate events often can cause severe damages and economic losses. Among different volcanic phenomena, this paper focuses on the study of the damage triggered by explosive volcanic eruptions (i.e. those causing volcanic ash emissions), due to the large impact area of the particles dispersion. In particular the focus is on the implementation of a procedure for the management of wastewater treatment equipment by using a GIS (Geographic Information System). To achieve this aim, the volcanic ash dispersion in the atmosphere has been considered a geoevent because of the possible description of its evolution by means of its geographical coordinates. The evolution representation for the cloud allows the management of the potential impacts on wastewater treatments. © 2015 Taylor & Francis Group.