Probabilistic volcanic hazard assessment and eruption forecasting: the Bayesian Event Tree approach

The purpose of this report is to discuss in detail the importance and prerogatives of quantitative volcanic hazard assessment and to describe the main features of a Bayesian model designed to achieve this goal. Ideas, models and results come out from the work made in the framework of the INGV-DPC V4 project, and partially from the application of the technique to Campi Flegrei (V3_2) and Vesuvius (V3_4). Here, we examine in depth the practical and philosophical implications of the approach, and report only a brief summary of the technical details that can be found on the cited literature.