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Disaster losses

Disaster losses encompass human, economic, non-economic, and environmental costs of disasters. This theme covers quantified direct and indirect losses.

This theme includes the assessment, documentation, and analysis of both immediate and long-term consequences resulting from disasters. It addresses direct physical damage to infrastructure, indirect economic losses, and quantified social ramifications on affected populations (non-economic costs). It also includes the methodologies and technologies used to measure and record these impacts, the policies and practices aimed at mitigating and compensating for losses, as well as trends of future losses.

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Small-scale and slow-onset disasters—like local floods, landslides, and droughts—are often ignored in official statistics, even though their combined impact can be just as damaging as large-scale disasters.

Latest Disaster losses additions in the Knowledge Base

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Future projections of burned area in Europe highlight the importance of human action thumbnail
Documents and publications
Future projections of burned area in Europe highlight the importance of human action

This research article explores future projections of burned area in Europe by assessing the influence of climate change and human actions.

Global Change Biology (Wiley)
Research briefs
Early heat waves hit wheat yields hardest but boost their resilience to subsequent heat waves

Research published in the Journal of Experimental Botany reveals that wheat crops are more sensitive to grain yield losses from heat waves that occur before reaching their flowering stage than those occurring later.

The Society for Experimental Biology (SEB)
Vietnamese woman wears the traditional conical hat, known as Non La, used to shield the face from the hot sun, during an extreme heat wave.
Update
Super El Niño to cause 451,000 heat deaths

Climate scientists are calling the hotter temperatures resulting from El Niño a “postcard from the future.”

Inside Climate News
451,000 at risk: Where action can save lives during the Super El Niño thumbnail
Documents and publications
451,000 at risk: Where action can save lives during the Super El Niño

In this report scientists project that global land temperatures will be 1.2°C/2.1° F above normal in the coming months due in large part to the current “Super El Niño” that began in June and is expected to last through Northern Hemisphere spring.

Climate Impact Lab
Recording and monitoring deaths during heatwaves: A scoping review of mortality attribution and surveillance systems thumbnail
Documents and publications
Recording and monitoring deaths during heatwaves: A scoping review of mortality attribution and surveillance systems

This scoping review of 176 studies from 41 countries found that heatwave-associated deaths are rarely coded as direct heat-related, while surveillance systems remain fragmented, highlighting the need for standardized and integrated monitoring.

International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health
Cryospheric risks in the Himalayan region: impacts and community perceptions on snow avalanches and GLOFs in Chitral, Pakistan thumbnail
Documents and publications
Cryospheric risks in the Himalayan region: impacts and community perceptions on snow avalanches and GLOFs in Chitral, Pakistan

This study examines the impact of GLOFs and snow avalanches on livelihoods and infrastructure in Chitral District, as well as community perceptions of these hazards.

Natural Hazards (Springer)
Aerial view shows flood-damaged areas after a massive flash flood swept through the Bhotekoshi River in Nuwakot, Nepal
Update
Nepal isn’t the only disaster‑struck country waiting for money from the global climate Loss and Damage Fund

As it faces the enormous task of rebuilding from a deadly flood that tore through communities in the Himalayas, Nepal is seeking compensation from the international Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage.

Conversation Media Group, the
A flooded street after hurricane Irma hit Florida, USA.
Update
A repeat of Miami’s 1926 hurricane could cost over $280 billion. That’s more than Hurricane Katrina

A repeat of the 1926 Great Miami Hurricane could cause hundreds of billions of dollars in damage. Population growth, increased exposure and climate change have heightened risks, with potential impacts on insurance, real estate and financial markets.

Yale Climate Connections
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