Abstract
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2014, suggests that an important increase in frequency and magnitude of hazardous processes related to climate change is to be expected at the global scale. Consequently, it is necessary to improve the level of preparedness and the level of public awareness, to fill institutional gaps, and to improve territorial planning in order to reduce the potentially disastrous impact of natural hazards related to climate change. This paper mainly presents a new framework for risk assessment and mapping which enables countries with limited data sources to assess their risk to climate change related hazards at the local level, in order to reduce potential costs, to develop risk reduction strategies, to harmonize their preparedness efforts with neighboring countries and to deal with trans-boundary risk. The methodology is based on the European Commission’s “Risk Assessment and Mapping Guidelines for Disaster Management” (2010) and considers local restrictions, such as a lack of documentation of historic disastrous events, spatial and other relevant data, offering alternative options for risk assessment, and the production of risk maps. The methodology is based on event tree analysis. It was developed within the European project SEERISK and adapted for a number of climate change-related hazards including floods, heat waves, wildfires, and storms. Additionally, the framework offers the possibility for risk assessment under different future scenarios. The implications for climate change adaptation policy are discussed.
Highlights
Reported disastrous events have significantly increased worldwide from 294 in 1950–1959 to 4210 in 2003–2013 [1]
It was developed within the European project SEERISK and adapted for a number of climate change-related hazards including floods, heat waves, wildfires, and storms
The framework offers the possibility for risk assessment under different future scenarios
Summary
Reported disastrous events have significantly increased worldwide from 294 in 1950–1959 to 4210 in 2003–2013 [1]. Many factors may influence this increase, including better reporting. According to a recent article [2], the rise of natural disasters may be attributed to a “complex set of interactions between the physical Earth system, human interference with the natural world and increasing vulnerability of human communities”. In order to interpret these trends correctly the definition of the term “disaster” has to be considered. There are operational definitions of the term “disaster” that are Climate 2016, 4, 8; doi:10.3390/cli4010008 www.mdpi.com/journal/climate
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