Indicators of Disaster Risk and Risk Management
By Omar Darío Cardona Arboleda (08/05, En, Es) See also Environment and Natural Resources
Hurricanes, earthquakes, landslides and floods have caused US$3.2 billion in physical losses annually in Latin America and the Caribbean during the past thirty years. On a yearly basis, disasters in the region claim more than 5,000 lives and affect 4 million people. Over this period, these losses have been trending upward as a result of development processes that lead to environmental destruction in vulnerable sites and rapid growth in hazard prone areas. Disasters (including the small-scale disasters that go unnoticed by the outside world) damage rural and urban livelihoods,as well as social and productive capital, having a proportionately greater impact on small farmers and micro entrepreneurs. Increased poverty has often resulted. In many cases, disasters have a longer term impact on the development prospects of countries and reduce the effectiveness of the Bank's development assistance to the region.
A growing body of evidence and experience shows that there are considerable economic and social gains to be made by adopting a proactive approach to risk reduction. Measures to reduce vulnerability to natural hazards can be integrated into development programs and post-disaster reconstruction. However, in order to integrate disaster risk reduction into development policies and practices, risk must be documented with quantifiable and timely information in a manner that is easily understood by decision makers who are not disaster experts.
This paper describes the application in 12 countries of a system of four indicators that measure the potential impact of natural hazards, the key elements of those countries' vulnerability, and their capacity to manage risks. The development of this set of indicators relies on two decades of data from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago. These indicators can help steer financial, economic, environmental and social policies and programs at the national level, and can also be adapted to regions and municipalities.
The indicators are designed to generate knowledge and awareness within the IDB and among borrowing governments of the importance of disaster risk management for development. We anticipate that these indicators will assist in integrating disaster risk management into the Bank's country programming and portfolio management exercises. We also expect that this tool will be of use to government officials in sector ministries as well as local governments, and international development agencies.
Last updated: 05/08/07
