Vesuvius red zone

The Vesuvius red zone (Italian: zona rossa del Vesuvio) is the area designated to be quickly evacuated within a few days in the case of an eruption of Mount Vesuvius.[1] The authorities believe that they will have two weeks' warning of an imminent eruption; the questions that arise are whether the population can be evacuated in time, despite a reluctance to leave their homes; and will there be as much as two weeks' warning in reality.[2]

Mount Vesuvius lies in a highly populated area.

As the area around Mount Vesuvius is highly urbanized, it became necessary to develop evacuation plans to be applied when the signs of a forthcoming eruption appear.[3] A danger zone around the volcano was first identified in 2001 by the Italian Protezione Civile; its boundaries were then redefined in 2013 following new studies on the behaviour of Plinian eruptions.[4]

The zone is composed by two subzones, called red zone 1 and 2. The former is the most dangerous area in the case of an eruption, being at greatest risk from pyroclastic flows. The red zone 2 will be subjected to falling ash and lapilli, whose intensity will depend on the intensity and direction of the winds at the time.[5]

Mount Vesuvius is continuously kept under surveillance by the Vesuvius Observatory of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology. When an appointed set of geologic activities occurs, an eruption warning is issued and the evacuation procedure begins.[6] It has been estimated that 72 hours are needed to complete the evacuation: 12 hours to organize it, 48 hours to transfer all the people outside the red zone and 12 hours are kept as a safety margin for unexpected events.[7]

List of comunes involved

The red zone comprises 25 comunes and part of the city of Naples, with about 800,000 residents to be evacuated.[5]

In the case of an eruption, the evacuated people will be transferred to and hosted in 19 Italian regions (Campania being excluded), according to their comune of origin.[8]

List of comunes to be evacuated[5]

Comune	Population[9]	Surface (km^2)	Hosting region
Boscoreale	27927	11.28	Calabria
Boscotrecase	10247	7	Basilicata
Cercola	18007	3	Liguria
Ercolano	52763	19.64	Emilia-Romagna
Massa di Somma	5353	3.03	Molise
Naples (6th municipality only)	138641	19.28	Lazio
Nola	34467	39	Aosta Valley
Ottaviano	23710	19.85	Lazio
Palma Campania	18218	20.8	Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Poggiomarino	21993	13.28	Marche
Pollena Trocchia	13478	8.11	Trentino-Alto Adige
Pompei	25207	12.4	Sardinia
Portici	54577	4.52	Piedmont
San Gennaro Vesuviano	11910	6.97	Umbria
San Giorgio a Cremano	45122	4.11	Tuscany
San Giuseppe Vesuviano	31612	14	Veneto
San Sebastiano al Vesuvio	9057	2	Apulia
Sant'Anastasia	27690	18.76	Veneto
Scafati	50686	19.69	Sicily
Somma Vesuviana	34981	30.74	Lombardy
Terzigno	18584	23	Abruzzo
Torre Annunziata	42406	7.33	Apulia
Torre del Greco	85332	30.66	Lombardy
Trecase	8969	6.14	Sicily

See also

• Emergency evacuation
• Emergency management
• Vesuvius National Park
• Pompeii and Herculaneum
• Prediction of volcanic activity

References

1. "What if Mount Vesuvius Erupted Today?". CBC.ca. 2017-09-03.
2. McGuire, Bill (October 16, 2003). "In the shadow of the volcano". The Guardian.
3. Marshall, Lee (2017-09-28). "'Locals console themselves with religion': Life in the shadow of an active volcano". The Daily Telegraph.
4. "From 2003 till now". Protezione Civile.
5. "New red zone". Protezione Civile.
6. "Reference event and alert levels". Protezione Civile.
7. Pasha-Robinson, Lucy (2016-10-14). "Mount Vesuvius eruption risk: Emergency plans to evacuate 700,000 finalised". The Independent.
8. Edwards, Catherine (2016-10-13). "Italy puzzles over how to save 700,000 people from wrath of Vesuvius". The Local.
9. Data taken from ISTAT's demographic data and referred to 31 December 2017.

External links

• "Update of the National Emergency Plan for Vesuvius". Protezione Civile.