Climate-Related Hazards: A Method for Global Assessment of Urban and Rural Population Exposure to Cyclones, Droughts, and Floods

Elizabeth Christenson, Mark Elliott, Ovik Banerjee, Laura Hamrick and Jamie Bartram
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Elizabeth Christenson: The Water Institute, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27516, USA
Mark Elliott: Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35406, USA
Ovik Banerjee: The Water Institute, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27516, USA
Laura Hamrick: The Water Institute, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27516, USA
Jamie Bartram: The Water Institute, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27516, USA

IJERPH, 2014, vol. 11, issue 2, 1-24

Abstract: Global climate change (GCC) has led to increased focus on the occurrence of, and preparation for, climate-related extremes and hazards. Population exposure, the relative likelihood that a person in a given location was exposed to a given hazard event(s) in a given period of time, was the outcome for this analysis. Our objectives were to develop a method for estimating the population exposure at the country level to the climate-related hazards cyclone, drought, and flood; develop a method that readily allows the addition of better datasets to an automated model; differentiate population exposure of urban and rural populations; and calculate and present the results of exposure scores and ranking of countries based on the country-wide, urban, and rural population exposures to cyclone, drought, and flood. Gridded global datasets on cyclone, drought and flood occurrence as well as population density were combined and analysis was carried out using ArcGIS. Results presented include global maps of ranked country-level population exposure to cyclone, drought, flood and multiple hazards. Analyses by geography and human development index (HDI) are also included. The results and analyses of this exposure assessment have implications for country-level adaptation. It can also be used to help prioritize aid decisions and allocation of adaptation resources between countries and within a country. This model is designed to allow flexibility in applying cyclone, drought and flood exposure to a range of outcomes and adaptation measures.

Keywords: climate change; hazard events; exposure; ArcGIS; urban; rural; cyclone; drought; flood (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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