Abstract
Floods, wildfires, heatwaves and droughts often result from a combination of interacting physical processes across multiple spatial and temporal scales. The combination of processes (climate drivers and hazards) leading to a significant impact is referred to as a 'compound event'. Traditional risk assessment methods typically only consider one driver and/or hazard at a time, potentially leading to underestimation of risk, as the processes that cause extreme events often interact and are spatially and/or temporally dependent. Here we show how a better understanding of compound events may improve projections of potential high-impact events, and can provide a bridge between climate scientists, engineers, social scientists, impact modellers and decision-makers, who need to work closely together to understand these complex events.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 469-477 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Nature Climate Change |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 6 |
Early online date | 14 May 2018 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jun 2018 |
Funding
1Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. 2School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. 3Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), De Bilt, The Netherlands. 4Institute for Environmental Studies, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 5Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for Climate Extremes and Climate Change Research Center, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. 6Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA. 7Institute for Environmental Decisions, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. 8Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology, MeteoSwiss, Zurich, Switzerland. 9Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering and National Center for Integrated Coastal Research, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA. 10Climate Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. *e-mail: [email protected]
Funders | Funder number |
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Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for Climate System Science | |
IMPREX | |
Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer | DP150100411 |
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme | 641811 |
European Commission | |
European Research Council | |
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich | 016.161.324 |
Seventh Framework Programme | 617518 |