My Research
Volcanoes are quite cool. But they can also be pretty annoying.
This being said, my PhD project is articulated around these questions: How can we improve the assessment (and the quantification) of hazard, vulnerability and risk around active volcanoes? What method can we use at what scale, and what will the resulting analysis show? In what measure is it possible to apply academic research in order to support emergency planning and decision making?
I am currently starting the third year of my PhD under the supervision of Costanza Bonadonna. In this project, we focus in developing models for the assessment and the reduction of the volcanic risk on two main case-studies: Iceland and Vulcano (Italy). To this day, most of these questions still need to be answered, and in order to do so, we are using a cocktail of methods coming from different horizons.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Hazard assessment
- Vulnerability and risk assessment
- Development of applicable tools
- Numerical modelling
- Tephra dispersal
- Remote sensing and GIS
TEACHING
- Hazard assessment in Volcanology (CERG-C)
- SpaceRisk (Certificat de Géomatique)
MY PUBLICATIONS
2013
- Biass, S., Frischknecht, C. and Bonadonna, C.: A fast GIS-based risk assessment for tephra fallout: the example of Cotopaxi volcano, Ecuador-Part II: vulnerability and risk assessment, Natural Hazards, 65(1), 497–521, 2013.
2012
- Biass, S. and Bonadonna, C.: A fast GIS-based risk assessment for tephra fallout: the example of Cotopaxi volcano, Ecuador-Part I: hazard assessment, Natural Hazards, 65(1), 477–495, 2012.
2011
- Biass, S. and Bonadonna, C.: A quantitative uncertainty assessment of eruptive parameters derived from tephra deposits: the example of two large eruptions of Cotopaxi volcano, Ecuador, Bulletin of Volcanology, 73(1), 73–90, 2011.