Disaster Risks to Infrastructure in El Salvador

The document outlines a bottom-up risk assessment of seven infrastructure categories in El Salvador, estimating an average annual loss of US$35.5 million. It identifies earthquakes and floods as the primary drivers of loss and recommends integrating these findings into local planning and climate change adaptation strategies.

• The total long-term average annual loss (AAL) for the seven studied infrastructure categories is estimated at US$35,528,072, which represents 0.15% of the 2012 annual GDP and 0.41% of the total value of the infrastructure stock.
• Earthquakes and floods are the dominant sources of financial risk, together accounting for nearly 80% of expected losses.
• Educational facilities are the infrastructure type with the highest financial exposure, primarily due to the high number of buildings and their low resilience to seismic activity, while floods are the most significant hazard for these facilities.
• Highways are particularly vulnerable to earthquakes, and healthcare facilities show higher expected losses in coastal areas (up to 4% of total stock value) due to the combined effects of flooding, tsunamis, and earthquakes amplified by unconsolidated soils.
• Climate change is expected to increase the intensity and frequency of tropical storms, hurricanes, and intense rainfall, which may lead to higher frequencies of flooding, landslides, and lahars, as well as increased tsunami vulnerability due to rising sea levels and mangrove loss.
• Sensitivity analysis suggests that peak flood events in El Salvador could become twice as frequent in the future, which would elevate flood risk to a level at least as high as earthquake risk.

APA

Climate and Development Knowledge Network (2016). Disaster Risks to Infrastructure in El Salvador. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/AALA-0010-Component-3-Policy-Brief-EN-final-June2016.pdf

Chicago

Climate and Development Knowledge Network. Disaster Risks to Infrastructure in El Salvador. 2016. http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/AALA-0010-Component-3-Policy-Brief-EN-final-June2016.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |title=Disaster Risks to Infrastructure in El Salvador |date=24 June 2016 |url=http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/AALA-0010-Component-3-Policy-Brief-EN-final-June2016.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climateanddevelopmentknowledgenetwork2016disaster, author = {{Climate and Development Knowledge Network}}, title = {{Disaster Risks to Infrastructure in El Salvador}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2016}, month = jun, url = {http://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/AALA-0010-Component-3-Policy-Brief-EN-final-June2016.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }