How useful and reliable are disaster databases in the context of climate and global change? A comparative case study analysis in Peru

Abstract

Abstract. Damage caused by weather-and climate-related disasters have increased over the past decades, and growing exposure and wealth have been identified as main drivers of this increase. Disaster databases are a primary tool for the analysis of disaster characteristics and trends at global or national scales, and they support disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. However, the quality, consistency and completeness of different disaster databases are highly variable. Even though such variation critically influences the outcome of any study, comparative analyses of different databases are still rare to date. Furthermore, there is an unequal geographic distribution of current disaster trend studies, with developing countries being underrepresented.Here, we analyze three different disaster databases in the developing-country context of Peru: a global database (Emergency Events Database: EM-DAT), a multinational Latin American database (DesInventar) and a national database (Peruvian National Information System for the Prevention of Disasters: SINPAD). The analysis is performed across three dimensions: (1) spatial scales, from local to regional (provincial) and national scale; (2) timescales, from single events to decadal trends; and (3) disaster categories and metrics, including the number of single disaster event occurrence, or people killed and affected.Results show limited changes in disaster occurrence in the Cusco and Apurímac regions in southern Peru over the past four decades but strong positive trends in people affected at the national scale. We furthermore found large variations of the disaster metrics studied over different spatial and temporal scales, depending on the disaster database analyzed. We conclude and recommend that the type, method and source of documentation should be carefully evaluated for any analysis of disaster databases; reporting criteria should be improved and documentation efforts strengthened.

Multi-Model Projections of River Flood Risk in Europe under Global Warming

“…• Uncertainties and limitations in the available impact datasets are a known issue [55], especially for global datasets [56], though this issue can be partly addressed through the use of simulated impacts [57]. Main issues include under-reporting of minor flood events and of those further back in time, absence of economic loss data for a large part of reported events, and uneven data coverage across European countries (e.g., fewer data for Eastern European countries before 1990…”

Attribution: How Is It Relevant for Loss and Damage Policy and Practice?

“…Disaster databases represent an impressive resource, however the quality, consistency and completeness varies between regions and between events. The results also vary between datasets: there is no consensus about how to collect data following disasters (Huggel et al 2015b), and different methodologies can have quite different results (Kron et al 2012). Collecting data about losses and damages from slow onset events such as drought is very challenging, due to the timescales of data collection, and the many other drivers which might play a role over this longer time period.…”

From state agencies to ordinary citizens: reframing risk-mitigation investments and their impact to disrupt urban risk traps in Lima, Peru

“…(13) Over 30 per cent of Peru's population live in Metropolitan Lima; importantly, the distribution of disaster risks is neither geographically nor socially even. (14) Records from the DesInventar database, which captures the occurrence of small-scale disasters, indicate that 19 per cent of all events recorded in Metropolitan Lima between 1970 and 2011 occurred in the district Cercado de Lima, where the case study area Barrios Altos is located and which hosts an estimated 270,000 out of 9.7 million inhabitants in Lima (15) (Figure 1). Fires, pollution, structural collapse of buildings, floods and landslides are registered as the major hazards that lead to smallerscale events.…”