Resource information
Earthquakes, floods, drought, and other
natural hazards cause tens of thousands of deaths, hundreds
of thousands of injuries, and billions of dollars in
economic losses each year around the world. Many billions of
dollars in humanitarian assistance, emergency loans, and
development aid are expended annually. Yet efforts to reduce
the risks of natural hazards remain largely uncoordinated
across different hazard types and do not necessarily focus
on areas at highest risk of disaster. Natural Disaster
Hotspots presents a global view of major natural disaster
risk hotspots - areas at relatively high risk of loss from
one or more natural hazards. It summarizes the results of an
interdisciplinary analysis of the location and
characteristics of hotspots for six natural hazards -
earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, floods, drought, and
cyclones. Data on these hazards are combined with
state-of-the-art data on the sub-national distribution of
population and economic output and past disaster losses to
identify areas at relatively high risk from one or more hazards.
