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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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Financial flood risk exposure of Nikkei 225 Companies: An industry sector and regional facility-scale perspective thumbnail
Documents and publications
Financial flood risk exposure of Nikkei 225 Companies: An industry sector and regional facility-scale perspective

This study quantifies flood-related financial risk across Nikkei 225 companies and 18,000+ facilities. Using climate, hydrological and corporate data, it estimates annual losses exceeding US$8.2 billion by 2030 and identifies sectors with exposure.

International Journal of Disaster Risk Science
Quantifying impacts of vertical land motion and sea level rise on flooding in Lagos Nigeria thumbnail
Documents and publications
Quantifying impacts of vertical land motion and sea level rise on flooding in Lagos Nigeria

The authors integrate high-resolution VLM into sea-level rise (SLR) projections for Lagos, Nigeria to quantify impacts of vertical land motion and sea level rise on flooding.

npj Natural Hazards (Nature)
Update
World’s breadbaskets are getting pounded by weather and trade spats

The breadbaskets of the world are getting pummeled by drone strikes and devilish weather, nudging prices higher amid already soaring food costs in the wake of the Iran war.

New York Times, the
Update
Europe's silent heat death toll

Heat-related deaths look less dramatic than other climate disasters, yet they are far more frequent. This article looks into why Europe’s deadliest climate hazard remains its least visible one.

The European Correspondent
Firefighter combating a wildfire
Research briefs
Europe: Wildfire affected area could triple due to climate change

A study finds climate change will increase wildfire activity across Europe, but investments in fire management, prevention and suppression could significantly reduce burned area, highlighting the importance of combining adaptation with climate mitigation.

Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Update
City Heat Solutions Calculator

HERA’s first-of-its-kind tool and analysis estimates how extreme heat affects economic output and mortality in cities around the world. It shows the likely impact on workers today and how those impacts could grow by 2050.

HERA (Climate Resilience for All)
The cost of keeping cool: energy affordability and extreme heat thumbnail
Documents and publications
The cost of keeping cool: energy affordability and extreme heat

This report outlines the geography and scale of household energy burden across the United States of America, with particular attention to the impacts of extreme heat and cooling costs.

Duke University
View of a hurricane on Earth as seen from a space station with solar panels and satellite modules
Research briefs
What's an accurate hurricane forecast worth?

FIU researchers developed an expanded economic model to measure the value of hurricane forecasts. They included injuries, evacuation costs and the long-term consequences of forecast errors into their calculations and found a single injury costs ~$133,066.

Florida International University
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