How can we measure the impact of natural disasters?

The authors introduce a measurement method for natural disaster impacts that aggregates fatalities, injuries, and financial damages into 'lifeyears lost', similar to the WHO's DALYs. Applying this index to data from 1980-2012, they find that middle-income countries bear the largest share of the global burden (80.9%), while low-income countries face the highest per capita burden. The analysis indicates that most disaster impacts occur in East and South Asia due to high population density and exposure to extreme events. The document also notes that in the Philippines, disaster damages have trended upward despite increased investment in disaster risk reduction, potentially due to climate change altering typhoon tracks.

• The proposed index aggregates disaster impact by converting mortality, morbidity, and financial damage into 'lifeyears lost'. Mortality is calculated as the difference between age at death and life expectancy; morbidity uses a 'welfare-reduction weight' based on WHO disability coefficients; and financial damage is converted by dividing monetary losses by a discounted proxy of annual human effort (income per capita discounted by 75%).
• Between 1980 and 2012, the total number of lifeyears lost worldwide due to natural disasters was 1,367 million, averaging nearly 42 million lifeyears annually. The data shows no overall global trend in the calculated index, but reveals that East and South Asia experience the most significant impacts due to population density and exposure to events like wide-scale flooding.
• The burden of natural disasters is disproportionately distributed by income level. Middle-income countries account for 80.9% of the overall burden, while low-income countries account for 16% and high-income countries for only 3.1%. However, low-income countries experience the highest burden on a per capita basis.
• Analysis of the Philippines from 1990 to 2012 shows an upward trend in disaster damages despite increased funding and public policy commitment to disaster risk reduction. The authors suggest this may be caused by anthropogenic climate change shifting typhoon tracks toward the South, an area previously less exposed and prepared.

APA

Noy, I. (2015). How can we measure the impact of natural disasters? World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/stories/geo-economics-and-politics/how-can-we-measure-the-impact-of-natural-disasters/

Chicago

Noy, Ilan. How can we measure the impact of natural disasters? World Economic Forum, 2015. https://www.weforum.org/stories/geo-economics-and-politics/how-can-we-measure-the-impact-of-natural-disasters/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Noy |first1=Ilan |title=How can we measure the impact of natural disasters? |publisher=World Economic Forum |date=16 March 2015 |url=https://www.weforum.org/stories/geo-economics-and-politics/how-can-we-measure-the-impact-of-natural-disasters/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{noy2015how, author = {Noy, Ilan}, title = {{How can we measure the impact of natural disasters?}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2015}, month = mar, url = {https://www.weforum.org/stories/geo-economics-and-politics/how-can-we-measure-the-impact-of-natural-disasters/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }