Drawn from reports received from 83 countries and territories, the findings are being used to highlight the theme of this year’s International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction which is focused on promoting resilient infrastructure and encouraging more durable and risk-informed construction under the slogan “Build To Last”.

Mega-disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis have been excluded from the data sets to ensure that the statistics reflect long-term disaster trends, and the focus of the analysis has been on  so-called extensive risk which manifests as large numbers of recurrent, low-to-medium severity disasters mainly associated with localized hazards such as flash floods, landslides, urban flooding, storms, fires and other time-specific events.

Ms. Mizutori commented: “Extensive disaster risk is magnified not just by climate change but by other drivers of risk such as insufficiently planned and managed urban development, environmental degradation, poverty and inequality, vulnerable rural livelihoods and weak governance. Achievement of the sustainable development goals will need massive investment in critical infrastructure. Such investment needs to take account of the growing risks posed by climate related hazards.

“Most of this type of loss is uninsured and tends to be absorbed by low-income households and communities, small businesses and local and national governments which have few resources to spare.”

Date:

11 Oct 2019

Sources:

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR)

Hazards:

Cyclone, Flood, Heat Wave, Land Slide, Storm Surge

Regions:

Africa, Americas, Europe, Asia, Oceania