Sa.Pe.Vo. – El Salvador mitigar Peligro Volcanico
The Sa.Pe.Vo. project, an acronym for "Mitigating Volcanic Peligrosity in El Salvador," is a product of the Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources of the National Research Council (CNR). The project involves leading Italian (Unifi, Unipa, UNIRM1) and Salvadoran (Universidad de El Salvador – UES) universities, and the Italian Agency for International Cooperation funded the project.
This is the latest in a series of projects conducted with the Italian Cooperation, a sign of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs's confidence in the capabilities of the CNR-IGG. The teaching and research activities conducted at the UES are attracting considerable international interest, thanks in part to the interdisciplinary strategy applied for the first time in a training project. The project comprises two interconnected parts, divided into "diplomados":
– The first is a course called "mitigating volcanic danger," and involves 42 students from the UES itself and from institutions such as the Salvadoran Ministry of the Environment and the Salvadoran Civil Protection.
– The second course covers psychosocial aspects and is called the "diplomado en psicologia de la emergencia" (diploma in emergency psychology). Thirty-three students from the UES and the Ministries of Education and Health are participating in this course. The pilot sites chosen for monitoring and study are the Chaparrastique volcano (San Miguel), the Llamatepec volcano (Santa Ana), and Quezaltepec (San Salvador).
The project is being conducted in close collaboration with the UES and the relevant ministries. In particular, for volcano monitoring data, the El Salvadoran Ministry of the Environment (MARN) is collaborating very effectively, as is the Ministry of Education. The synergies created in Italy and El Salvador will lead to concrete results in the short term. Specifically, a research facility on natural hazards will be established, along with technical and research facilities and expertise in emergency psychology.