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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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A solitary tree stands against a cracked, arid landscape under a cloudy sky, illustrating drought and desertification.
Research briefs
"Climateflation": As the climate breaks down, costs go up

Climateflation is expected to keep raising costs in the years ahead. Reducing emissions to net zero, limiting further warming and investing in climate-resilient infrastructure will be essential to ease long-term economic pressures.

Conversation Media Group, the
Livestock in Extremadura drinking water in the context of drought in Spain.
Research briefs
Europe: €439 billion already lost to droughts

As Mediterranean countries face another summer of extreme heat, research led by CMCC examines the economic costs of prolonged drought exposure.

Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC)
Land-use and atmospheric shifts jointly amplify U.S. drought-driven crop losses thumbnail
Documents and publications
Land-use and atmospheric shifts jointly amplify U.S. drought-driven crop losses

This paper uses an integrated, multi-scale, multi-sector modeling framework to project agricultural drought (AD) risk for corn and soybean across the contiguous United States (CONUS) through 2055.

npj Natural Hazards (Nature)
Burnt house and cars in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii, 2023
Update
Europe: Destructive fires char Western Europe

Satellite observations show record-breaking wildfires in Spain and burned more than 90,000 hectares in France, triggered mass evacuations and devastated communities. Researchers link the extreme fire activity to drought, heat waves and strong winds.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Aerial photo showing extensive hurricane damage in a residential area.
Update
Disaster review for the first half of 2026

In the first 6 months of the year, disasters caused worldwide losses estimated at US$112bn. Of that, only US$44bn were insured, representing a 60% insurance gap. Losses were below the inflation-adjusted 10-year average and well below the 5-year average.

Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft (Munich Re)
Towards Comprehensive Economic Assessments of Climate Change Impacts thumbnail
Documents and publications
Towards comprehensive economic assessments of climate change impacts

This paper reviews key strengths and limitations of widely used economic modelling approaches for assessing climate change impacts. Authors find none of the modelling approaches can comprehensively assess both direct and indirect climate change impacts.

Economics of Disasters and Climate Change (Springer)
Update
U.S.A.: 3 years after Maui wildfires

Latest findings from the Maui Wildfire Exposure Study found that recovery from the August 2023 blaze “is underway, but it remains uneven,” as adults and children who survived the fire show signs of the physical and mental health toll.

Maui Now
Update
Nepal: The hidden economic bill of monsoon disasters

Every year, rescue helicopters, collapsed bridges, damaged homes and rising death tolls dominate news for a few days. But families, farmers, businesses and local governments have to bear the economic burden of the disaster even after floodwaters recede.

The Kathmandu Post
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