National Geoinformation Center and its Role for Communication of Natural Hazards and Risks to the General Public in Bulgaria

The National Geoinformation Center (NGIC) is a Bulgarian scientific infrastructure whose main goal is integration of primary data concerning the geo-environment and providing data products and services to the scientific community, responsible institutions and general public.

The first and main module of this newly established infrastructure is dedicated to monitoring and study of the Earth and outer space. The technical capacity of the involved partners include unique equipment such as seismic, accelerometric, geodetic, meteorological and oceanographic stations, and scientific instruments in several laboratories (geotechnical, paleomagnetic, chemical, biological and computer). Thus, the partners in the consortium provide monitoring of a series of phenomena affecting the solid Earth (earthquakes, rock falls and landslides, soils), air (pollution, UV radiation, magnetic storms) and water (river, ground and sea). And of course are responsible for information dissemination, collaboration with policy makers, responding to media and last but not least communication to general public.

We have chosen three main channels to deliver our data and knowledge to the society. The first one uses the means of internet platforms– web page and social channels where NGIC provide real time data about more than 10 phenomena (earthquakes, magnetic storms, UV radiation, air pollution, etc.). The second channel is dedicated to elaboration of educational programs for students in different age categories. They rely on materials illustrated with many pictures, videos and examples that would be easily perceived by modern children. Resources are designed to be easily adapted to different types of learning – on spot, face-to-face in class or electronic. The third communication channel uses well-illustrated popular science materials that are suitable for publication on various platforms - websites, magazines, specialized publications and any other media. Interest in them increases significantly in cases where there is an event representing a natural hazard or the risk of such a phenomenon increases.

Using the described ways of communication, our goal is to reach as much as possible users in the society. The experience gained shows that in addition to the requirements for the information (to be timely, high-quality and reliable), it is necessary to pay close attention to the way of materials presentation and their graphical layout.