Reaching the public and natural hazards: practitioners' points of view

The Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) is a public research organization in Italy engaged in monitoring and research to understand several natural phenomena impacting society. At the same time, INGV performs outreach, communication, and public engagement activities since better knowledge and awareness can mitigate the effects of natural hazardous events. A key component of public outreach is digital communication. In practice, websites, blogs, and social media convey information produced by the Institute and gather requests for information and comments from online users. This online information flow is clustered around the three main INGV research departments -earthquakes, volcanoes, and the environment-, and it is integrated with in-person events such as science festivals, training at schools, citizens' meetings, and museum visits. The elevated risk exposure of the Italian territory to natural hazards, in particular earthquakes and eruptions, makes such activities very challenging concerning communication with society. The occurrence of these events modulates the request for information and can disrupt the working routine, thus forcing the researchers to tune and adapt their contributions. Explaining climate change and its effects is challenging and urgent as well. By celebrating the “INGV25 years activity”, we observe a transition: the deficit model is still used, but several other activities and dialogues have been started to listen to the voices of citizens and non-expert stakeholders, to understand better public interest in priorities for research and the public’s concerns. Natural hazard communication is globally relevant, considering the current planet situation. Moreover, natural hazards affect men and women, boys and girls in different ways, due to biological, cultural, and social characteristics. The contribution is intended to share with the audience challenges and current practices in disaster science-society relationships, properly facing the diversity of the population. See also: Rubbia G., De Lucia M, and Grezio A. (2025). "Reaching the public and natural hazards: practitioners' points of view". International Conference of Public Communication in Science and Technology - PCST 2025 27-29 May 2025, Aberdeen (UK), 3-minute talk and poster. Abstract book p. 437.https://www.abdn.ac.uk/media/site/events/cpd-amp-event-services/pcst/PCST-2025-Aberdeen-Abstract-Booklet-FINAL.pdf