Promotion and Development of Protected Volcanic Areas Through Field-Based Environmental Communication Activities: the ‘Gran Cono’ Tour in the Vesuvius National Park (Italy)

Abstract

The ‘Gran Cono’ tour in the National Park of Vesuvius (Campania, Italy), is, presented here, a scientific event conceived with the aim of testing how field-based communication activities in protected and active volcanic areas could be important in order to draw attention of people towards the geological value of volcanic sites, and also to raise awareness of local high volcanic hazard. The field trip was carried out on October 18, 2014, in the framework of the second year of the ‘Settimana del Pianeta Terra’ (TheWeek of Planet Earth), the main purpose of this initiative being the discovery and the promotion of Italian geological and natural heritage, and consisted of hundreds of geoevents throughout the country. The Gran Cono walking tour, planned in a very well-known and protected volcanic area, was carried out by about a hundred nonskilled citizens, including children. They could discover and enjoy the extraordinary geodiversity and biodiversity of the Vesuvius environment, but also perceive the potential volcanic hazard of Vesuvius, a still active but quiescent volcano. As a result, the educational value of this field-based environmental communication activity has been achieved through effective communication between the scientists involved and the communities living in a very dangerous volcanic areas. The organization of similar events has proven to be very valuable in such densely populated areas, where the awareness of volcanic risk is often very poor, as they raise public understanding of both the high risk and the inestimable geoheritage associated with their territory.