2009 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction: patterns, trends and drivers

An observation of disaster risk patterns and trends at the global level allows a visualization of the major concentrations of risk described in the previous chapter and an identification of the geographic distribution of disaster risk across countries, trends over time and the major drivers of these patterns and trends. The analysis presented in this chapter, developed by a large, interdisciplinary group of researchers from around the world, makes global disaster risk more visible – a key step towards mobilizing the political and economic commitment needed to reduce it. Given the growing influence of climate change, the centrepiece of this chapter is an analysis of the mortality and economic loss4 risk for three weather-related hazards: tropical cyclones, floods and landslides. In addition new insights have been gained into other hazards such as earthquakes, tsunami and drought