Recently (here and there) I mentioned Reinsurers comments on the increase on the number of catastrophes. But actually, there are other sources of information about catastrophes. For instance the http://www.cred.be/, Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. As the mention it below, there has been an increase in the number of natural catastrophes. For a disaster to be entered into the so-called EM-database at least one of the following criteria must be fulfilled:
• Ten (10) or more people reported killed.
• Hundred (100) or more people reported affected.
• Declaration of a state of emergency.
• Call for international assistance.
Note that it is possible to download data (here), so I guess I will work further with that database. To be continued…
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Arthur Charpentier (January 7, 2011). Evolution of the number of natural catastrophes. Freakonometrics. Retrieved October 8, 2024 from https://doi.org/10.58079/oug6
Thanks. Looking forward to it 🙂
If you don’t mind a question from a interested ignorant.
Since the criteria for disasters focus primarily on the effect on human beings, should this data not also be compared with the population development or something more refined like the development of the population density in risk areas.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t doubt the prognosis of climate change increasing extreme weather conditions (or the human causes of climate change for that matter). But the increase in ‘disasters’ might have a lot to do with the development of the population. Should this not be taken into account?
ANSWER: this is an extremely important and interesting question… I will address a post to that comment in a few hours (days ?)