Disasters disrupt hundreds of thousands of lives every year. Each disaster has lasting effects, both to people and property. Climate change, population growth and urbanisation are just some of the many reasons which contribute to an increase in both the number and severity of disasters, with the Asia Pacific region particularly badly hit.
The Institute for the Public Understanding of Risk (IPUR) analysed data from the 2021 World Risk Poll (WRP) and other data sources and found that of the disasters linked to natural hazards that took place worldwide in 2021, 40% of events, 49% of deaths and 66% of the total population affected were in Asia. In 2021 alone, floods in China affected 14.5 million people, drought affected 11 million people in Afghanistan, and Typhoon Rai affected 10.6 million people in the Philippines.
To provide a broader perspective into the tragedy faced by populations in Asia, IPUR is developing a series of research briefs, led by Dr Olivia Jensen (IPUR Lead Scientist, Environment and Climate) and Dr Tra Trinh (IPUR Research Fellow), discussing various aspects and outlooks that come with these hazards. Specifically, each brief will look at:
- Experience and impacts of disasters
- Warnings and Preparedness
- Information and trust
- Disasters and risk perceptions
- Infrastructure and resilience
In an effort to guide and advise on disaster risk mitigation, the first two briefs were presented at the ASEAN disaster management programme for senior managers, organised by the Singapore Civil Defence Force. IPUR is exploring further collaborations with key stakeholders on opportunities to utilise the briefs to make an impact.
Disaster and disruption
From the WRP data, IPUR was able to see the frequency and types of disasters but more than that, infer and understand the disruptions caused as a result. In the first research brief on experience impacts of disasters, power cuts, transport disruption and communication network failures are some of the consequences of extreme weather. Other more severe consequences could include food or water shortages. By analysing the relationship between data on disaster experience as well as experience of disruptions, the research brief attempts to dissect the relationship between disasters and disruptions.
One interesting finding is that of the relationship between disasters and disruptions at the country level. Disasters have comparatively lower impact on disruptions in high income territories such as Japan and Taiwan. The countries with the greatest difference in disruption levels between those who have experienced a disaster and those who have not are middle income countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Despite investing heavily in infrastructure in recent years and greatly extending access to basic services, these countries’ infrastructure networks may not yet have adequate buffers to deal with extreme weather events. Increasing network resilience will be a high priority for this group of countries in the future.
Extreme weather events have shown that resilience is an essential part of any comprehensive climate action programme because climate change is both a global and a local issue. It will require a combined and coordinated effort but the good news is that addressing these risks will go a big way to protect people, property and futures. These research briefs aim to contribute to that coordinated effort in a bid to build climate change resilience.
