Preventive Resettlement of Populations at Risk of Disaster - GFDRR

Figure 1.4. Percentage of Deaths by Type of Hazard
(1970–2009)
Extreme
temperatures
4%
Earthquakes
36%
Source: EM-DAT.
Figure 1.5. Percentage of Persons Affected by Type
of Hazard (1970–2009)
Droughts
32%
Source: EM-DAT.
Earthquakes
2%
Storms
13%
Floods
8%
Landslides
1%
Storms
27%
Droughts
23%
Figure 1.6. Percentage of Economic Losses by Type
of Hazard (1970–2009)
Volcanic
eruptions
1%
Extreme
temperatures
2%
Floods
51%
Figure 1.4 shows the percentage of deaths by type of
hazard for the same period: 36 percent of deaths were
directly related to earthquakes, 27 percent to storms, 23
percent to droughts, and 8 percent to floods.
Some of the most lethal disasters of the past decade
were (a) the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, which killed
226,408, (b) Cyclone Nargin in Myanmar in 2008, which
killed 138,366, (c) the Sichuan earthquake in China in
2008, which killed 87,476, and (d) the heat wave in Europe
in 2003, which killed 72,210. 6 At the start of the
current decade, Latin America and the Caribbean region
experienced another mega disaster—the devastating
earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which killed
230,000 and affected more than two million.
Although earthquakes are associated with the highest
mortality rates, a large percentage of people are affected
by natural hazards related to climatic events such as
floods and storms.
Figure 1.5 shows the percentage distribution of those
impacted by disasters of geological or meteorological
origin in the past four decades: floods account for more
than half the total number, while droughts account for
32 percent. In the past decade, floods, droughts, and
storms (in that order) accounted for more than 95 percent
of the 2 billion people affected by natural hazards.
With regard to economic losses, analyses of the past four
decades show that storms and floods combined account
for 65 percent, while earthquakes are directly associated
with 25 percent (see figure 1.6).
Forest fires
2%
Storms
41%
Source: EM-DAT.
Droughts
5%
Earthquakes
25%
Extreme
temperatures
Floods 3%
24%
Analyses of trends in economic losses due to natural
disasters must still overcome many methodological
hurdles related to the coverage, processing and standardization
of data. 7
Nevertheless, one trend that appears
to be pronounced over the past 10 years and is
related to global urbanization is the increasing accumulation
of economic assets in large population centers in
developing countries. Many of those urban centers are
located in areas that are geologically unstable or prone
to hydrometeorological hazards. As population density
6
In: “2009 Disasters in Numbers,” United Nations. International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) (www.unisdr.org).
7
Although worldwide absolute losses have increased exponentially since the 1970s, when the figures are adjusted for inflation and expressed
as a percentage of global gross domestic product (GDP), the increases may be much less marked (Global Assessment Report on Disaster
Risk Reduction, UNISDR, 2009a, p.55).
4
Preventive Resettlement of Populations at Risk of Disaster: Experiences from Latin America