Natural disasters and the economy
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Natural disasters and the economy Alessandra Faggian1 · Marco Modica1
© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
1 Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic is only the latest catastrophic event showing humans how “little” they are in a much bigger and integrated eco-system. All human activities, including those to produce, exchange and allocate goods and services, are contingent upon the functioning of the natural system. With this awareness, it becomes increasingly important for human beings to develop ways to face—and solve—the various challenges thrown at them by their environment. For example, several studies recently underlined the correlation between climate change and the likelihood (and magnitude) of hydrogeological events such as droughts, rainfall, cyclones and landslides (Stott 2016; NAP 2016). Disasters triggered by natural phenomena are a shock often difficult to overcome. According to CRED (2019), 315 natural disasters—accounting for 11,804 deaths and 131.7 billion dollars in economic losses across the world—have been recorded in 2018, while over 68 million people have been directly affected by extreme events worldwide. The socio-economic impact generated by these natural disasters need to be carefully studied and, in fact, there is an ever increasing demand, from both the public and the private sector, for actions aimed at preventing, mitigating and adapting to the damages produced by natural disasters (Zeleˇnáková and Zvijáková 2017).
A. Faggian
[email protected] M. Modica [email protected] 1
Gran Sasso Science Institute, Via Iacobucci 2, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
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A. Faggian, M. Modica
However, it is important to note that the occurrence of extreme natural events not always turns into a disaster. In fact, natural events might be labelled as “disasters” only when they severely affect vulnerable areas, inhabited by humans (Mela et al. 2017). This special issue on “Natural Disasters and the Economy” aims at providing a comprehensive vision of the interaction between natural disasters and socio—economic regional structures, covering different aspects of the economic evaluation of natural disasters, from both an ex-ante and ex-post perspective. The economic effects of extreme events vary according to a series of elements, which should be jointly considered. For instance, a natural disaster might generate a different outcome according, not only to the type of event under consideration (clearly a flood produces different effects of an earthquake or a wildfire), but also to the socio-economic conditions of the affected regions and the “interaction” between hazards and the affected communities. Moreover, long-term consequences are also related to the capacity of regions to absorb, bounce back and adapt to a shock. Therefore, all the components of the risk (hazard, socio-economic exposure, vulnerability and resilience) might be jointly evaluated, and at the lowest possible scale of analysis, to uncover the strengths and weaknesses of a region. This can be done both in an ex
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