Phlegraean Fields: Vigilance and Communication in Volcanic Risk Management

"The Phlegraean area is closely monitored and there is ongoing and constant dialogue with the scientific community, including the major risks commission of the national civil protection department. Therefore, it is from the community that any signals of attention for raising alert levels come. At this moment, there is no signal going in this direction," said the director of Civil Protection of the Campania Region, Italo Giulivo, speaking with journalists on the sidelines of the debate on "Campi Flegrei, ethics of risk communication." The meeting was attended by the deputy head of the Civil Protection Department, Titti Postiglione, the director of the INGV's volcanoes department, Francesca Bianco, the director of the Vesuvian Observatory of the INGV, Mauro Di Vito; the mayor of Pozzuoli, Luigi Manzoni, and was moderated by the president of the Order of Journalists of Campania, Ottavio Lucarelli. "There is a normal evolution of an uplifting area that also entails the effect of shocks," Giulivo continued. For the director of Civil Protection of the Campania Region, it is necessary "to spread correct information on how volcanic risk is articulated. First of all, languages must be standardized. Talking about hazard is different from talking about risk; one must have language ownership when talking about these phenomena, and the information must be based on validated knowledge. Very often, it is based on the opinion of the moment that does not contribute much to the spread of the culture of civil protection." The succession of events, however, causes anxiety in the population, but in the opinion of the deputy head of the Civil Protection Department, Titti Postiglione, "my first antagonist of anxiety is called information." For the mayor of Pozzuoli, Luigi Manzoni, it is essential to rely only on "official sources." The Municipality often faces "the problem of managing anxiety that is fueled by bad information."