Investigating the decoupling effects between global sustainable development and multi-disaster crises

Abstract

ABSTRACT Various disasters pose significant challenges to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), highlighting the urgent need for research on global sustainability resilience under multi-disaster crises. This study analyzed the spatiotemporal evolution of disaster frequency, losses, and sustainable development performance from 2000 to 2022. On this basis, we examined the differences in sustainable development under overlapping disaster types and assessed the impact of disaster losses on the 17 SDGs. Finally, decoupling theory was applied to explore the relationships between multi-disaster crises and sustainable development progress. Our findings reveal a global decrease in disaster frequency and an increase in sustainability. However, countries in East and South Asia are disaster hotspots, and many African countries face both frequent disaster shocks and obstacles to sustainable development. Notably, 26.51% and 19.88% of countries experienced overlapping effects from 7 to 8 disaster types, which generally hinder sustainability. We describe the seeking sustainable development under multi-disaster crises as a complex interaction of decoupling processes. Although often exhibits an absolute decoupling and expansive coupling, it is also prone to sudden transition into recessive decoupling or negative coupling, and SDGs are still strongly constrained by disasters. This study highlights the importance of promoting disaster risk management and sustainable development, calling for increased attention and funding investment to assist vulnerable areas establish crisis warning systems and buffer zones.