The Como 2005 Congress has represented the concluding event of the International Project entitled “Dark Nature - Rapid Natural Change and Human Responses”, an ICSU-funded project awarded to a consortium of organizations headed by IUGS (International Geological Sciences through its GEOINDICATOR Initiative), and including IGU, IUGG, INQUA, IGBP.  The project has been articulated in a series of events hosted by countries such as Mauritania (January 2004), Mozambique (November 2004), Argentina (March 2005), Iran (May 2005), Canada (June 2005). The project has been aimed at fostering foster multidisciplinary discussion focused on the meaning of environmental sustainability, keeping into consideration the role of natural processes in causing damages to man and the environment.

The Como final meeting, held  in the wonderful location of Villa Olmo, on the shores of Lake Como, has been extremely successful in terms of participants (95), oral presentations (43) and posters (12).

A great deal of topics were covered during the meeting; only a few of them are listed below.

- A reconsideration of the tsunami hazard after the December 2004 event;

- Problems related to desertification and drought;

- Catastrophic floods in Africa and related human responses;

- Seismic hazard in Northern Italy, with particular regard to Lombardy;

- The tsunami hazard in Lake Como;

- Subsidence processes in the Como urban area;

-  The application of the INQUA scale at the worldwide level.

- Volcanic hazard assessment in the South of Italy (Vesuvius, Etna volcanoes);

- The use of classical historical sources for better tracking natural catastrophes;

- Environmental communication and the media;

- Environmental sustainability: role and participation of local communities.

 

For a more complete picture of the issues dealt with during the Como meeting, please download  the program and abstract volume 

 

During the final day of meeting local and national media representatives have been invited to take part in a plenary debate with scientists, centred on the elaboration of a new meaning of the concept of environmental sustainability, keeping into consideration the outcomes of the Dark Nature project. At the end of the debate, it has been possible to gather all issues emerged during the discussion, in a final Message from Como.

A field trip to the Central Alps, scheduled after all the presentations and the plenary debate, has enabled the participants to observe geologic and historical evidences of the catastrophic debris flow that, in 1618, buried the village of Piuro.

The organizing committee would like to express appreciation for the high-level scientific contributions provided by all the participants, and look forward to new future initiatives aimed at improving the society’s capability to cope, in a more rational and effective way, with natural catastrophes and their consequences.