Assessing cascading effects from multiple hazards

The HydroHazards project develops frameworks to analyze how simultaneous or sequential hydrometeorological events impact critical infrastructure and create social vulnerabilities. A national analysis of Sweden indicates that while extreme precipitation, river streamflow, and sea levels rarely coincide in one location, the south and west coasts are more prone to simultaneous floods and extreme sea levels. In the municipality of Halmstad, the project applies a mixed-methods approach—combining network analysis, synthetic distribution networks, and the Impact Chain model—to identify how infrastructure failures lead to cascading effects on the population, distinguishing between underlying social vulnerabilities (e.g., income) and emerging vulnerabilities caused by service disruptions.

• National-level analysis in Sweden shows that multiple extremes of precipitation and streamflow with at least 10-year return levels typically cluster during summer months for most of the country.
• While extreme sea levels, river streamflows, and precipitation generally occur in different seasons across Sweden, the south and west coasts are exceptions where floods and extreme sea levels are more likely to occur simultaneously due to connections with winter storms or early spring flooding.
• The HydroHazards framework evaluates critical infrastructure based on three main pillars: criticality (importance relative to disruption consequences), vulnerability (exposure, preparedness, and disruptions), and resilience (redundancy, rapidity, and resourcefulness).
• The project distinguishes between 'underlying vulnerabilities' based on intersectional indicators like age and income, and 'emerging vulnerabilities' that arise specifically from infrastructure disruptions or adaptation actions.
• To analyze physical interdependencies and cascading effects where location data is missing, the project utilizes 'synthetic distribution networks' and the 'Impact Chain model' to map how hazards lead to population-level impacts.

APA

Barquet, K., Berg, P., Hieronymus, M., Passos, M. V., André, K., Segnestam, L., Englund, M., Inga, K., & Bin Ashraf, F. (2022). Assessing cascading effects from multiple hazards. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/multiple-hazards-social-vulnerability-sei2022.042-corrected.pdf

Chicago

Barquet, Karina, Peter Berg, Magnus Hieronymus, Marlon Vieira Passos, Karin André, Lisa Segnestam, Mathilda Englund, Katarina Inga, and Faisal Bin Ashraf. Assessing cascading effects from multiple hazards. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2022. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/multiple-hazards-social-vulnerability-sei2022.042-corrected.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{barquet2022assessing, author = {Barquet, Karina and Berg, Peter and Hieronymus, Magnus and Passos, Marlon Vieira and André, Karin and Segnestam, Lisa and Englund, Mathilda and Inga, Katarina and Bin Ashraf, Faisal}, title = {{Assessing cascading effects from multiple hazards}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2022}, month = nov, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/multiple-hazards-social-vulnerability-sei2022.042-corrected.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }