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Small disasters are usually the product of climate variability and climate change. Analysis of them illustrates that they increase difficulties for local development-frequently affecting the livelihoods of poor people and perpetuating their level of poverty and human insecurity-and entail challenges for a country's development. In contrast to extreme events, small disasters are often invisible at the national level and their effects are not considered as relevant from a macroeconomic standpoint. Nevertheless, their accumulated impact causes economic, environmental and social problems. This paper presents the results of an evaluation of the DesInventar database, developed in 1994 by the Network for Social Studies in Disaster Prevention in Latin America. In addition, it proposes a new version of the Local Disaster Index developed in 2005 within the framework of the Disaster Risk and Management Indicators Program for the Americas, with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank.

Understanding disaster risk due to hazard events such as earthquakes creates powerful incentives for countries to develop planning options and tools to reduce potential damages. The risk evaluation model CAPRA (Comprehensive Approach to Probabilistic Risk Assessment) described in this article is a techno-scientific methodology and information platform, composed of tools for the evaluation and communication of risk at various territorial levels. The model allows evaluating losses on exposed elements using probabilistic metrics, such as the exceedance probability curve, expected annual loss and probable maximum loss, useful for multi-hazard risk analyses. The platform is conceptually oriented to facilitate decision-making; by using the results obtained with the CAPRA platform, it is possible to design risk transfer instruments, evaluating probabilistic cost-benefit ratio, providing an innovative tool for decision makers to analyse the net benefits of risk mitigation strategies like building retrofitting. This model is also useful for land use planning, for determining loss scenarios for emergency response, early warning, on-line loss assessment mechanisms and for the holistic evaluation of disaster risk based on indicators that facilitates the integrated risk management by the different stakeholders involved in risk reduction decision-making. All the modules of the CAPRA platform are described in this article by using as an example the city of Barcelona, Spain. Likewise, the article presents one of those applications that can be made by using the results of CAPRA: the holistic evaluation of the seismic risk of Barcelona.

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