The 2010 Eruption of the Eyfjallajokull Volcano and its Impact on Travelling in Europe. The ESSHC's Participants in Ghent as a Test Case

Description

In April 2010, a strong north-western wind blew an ash-cloud from the erupting Eyfjallajokull volcano. Due to the eruption of this Icelandic volcano all air traffic in Europe was made impossible for several days. This in turn affected travellers across the world, amongst which numerous participants of the European Social Science History Conference in Ghent who were unable to return home as planned.

In this lecture we will use the occurrence of the Eyjafjallajokull's eruption to analyse how Europe, in casu Belgium, fared without air traffic. It gives an insight of the problems encountered by voyagers in an air-traffic-less Europe. To do so we checked how the participants of the European Social Science History Conference returned home after leaving Ghent. A questionnaire was sent to every participant of this conference with questions regarding their inward and outward journey to Ghent. Thanks to the many responses we received, we were able to make some valid statements about the ability to reach Ghent in normal circumstances, but also when air traffic faltered. This not only gives a good overview of the transport network's weaknesses in times of stress, but also of the actual transport situation in a European country with a very high centrality degree.

After some explanations on the questionnaire and the credibility of this questionnaire as a source, we will first show how the city of Ghent was reached in normal circumstances. Special importance will be given to when air-traffic becomes pre-dominant, and which are the most important airports to reach Ghent (and for that matter Belgium).

This will be followed by a short narrative of the Eyfjallajokull's eruption and the gradual development of the ash cloud in the European skies, and how this affected air traffic. Then an overview will be given of the possible alternative modes of transportation offered in Ghent to reach the participants desired destinations. Some of these modes of transportation were quite successful in filling the gap created by the grounded airplanes, while other modes of transportation failed. Our research has shown the existence of some of these bottlenecks and given us some understanding why these mode of transportations were unable to cope with a situation like this.

One of our most surprising result was that the different nationalities organised themselves differently to get home, offering an interesting cultural approach to what has been termed by some participants as a 'highly traumatic experience' and by others as an 'interesting and rejoicing journey'.

Period	Apr 2012
Event title	9th European Social Science History Conference
Event type	Conference
Sponsor	International Institute of Social History
Location	Glasgow, United Kingdom
Degree of Recognition	International