Cost assessment of natural hazards - State-of-the-art, knowledge gaps and recommendations

Volker Meyer*, Nina Becker, Vasileios Markantonis, Reimund Schwarze, Jeroen C.J.H. Aerts, Jeroen C.J.M. Van Den Bergh, Laurens M. Bouwer, Philip Bubeck, Paolo Ciavola, Vanessa Daniel, Elisabetta Genovese, Colin Green, Stéphane Hallegatte, Heidi Kreibich, Quentin Lequeux, Bernhard Lochner, Ivana Logar, Elissaios Papyrakis, Clemens Pfurtscheller, Jennifer PoussinValentin Przyluski, Annegret H. Thieken, Paul Thompson, Christophe Viavattene

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to ConferencePaperAcademic

Abstract

Effective and efficient reduction of, or adaptation to, natural hazard risks requires a thorough understanding of the costs of natural hazards in order to develop sustainable risk management strategies. The current methods that assess the costs of different natural hazards employ a diversity of terminologies and approaches for different hazards and impacted sectors. This makes it difficult to arrive at robust, comprehensive and comparable cost figures. The CONHAZ (Costs of Natural Hazards) project aimed to compile and synthesise current knowledge on cost assessment methods in order to strengthen the role of cost assessments in the development of integrated natural hazard management and adaptation planning. In order to achieve this, CONHAZ has adopted a comprehensive approach, considering natural hazards ranging from droughts, floods and coastal hazards to Alpine hazards, as well as different impacted sectors and cost types (direct tangible damages, losses due to business interruption, indirect damages, intangible effects, and costs of risk mitigation). This presentation summarises the main results of CONHAZ. These comprise findings regarding best practices, overall knowledge gaps and recommendations for practice and research. The presentation will give an overview on general as well as hazard-specific findings and outline the recommendations that include issues such as comprehensiveness, uncertainties, improvement of data sources, improvement of methods, future dynamics of risk, distribution of risks and risk transfer, knowledge exchange, as well as cost assessment as decision support.

Original languageEnglish
Pages453-456
Number of pages4
Publication statusPublished - 2012
Event4th International Disaster and Risk Conference: Integrative Risk Management in a Changing World - Pathways to a Resilient Society, IDRC Davos 2012 - Davos, Switzerland
Duration: 26 Aug 201230 Aug 2012

Conference

Conference4th International Disaster and Risk Conference: Integrative Risk Management in a Changing World - Pathways to a Resilient Society, IDRC Davos 2012
Country/TerritorySwitzerland
CityDavos
Period26/08/1230/08/12

Keywords

  • Adaptation
  • Cost assessment
  • Mitigation
  • Natural hazards
  • Risk management

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