Figure 1 - uploaded by Melanie Gall
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Examples of direct and indirect losses as well as quantifiable and non-quantifiable losses (adapted from Gall and Kreft 2013).
Source publication
This paper provides an overview of the loss data landscape in the United States. It outlines the various organizational efforts for collecting and disseminating loss data. Numerous governmental organizations collect loss estimates but there is not a single governmental entity that consolidates and disseminates this information in a standardized and...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... direct economic as well as direct human losses dominate existing loss inventories (see upper right quadrant in Figure 1), the nature of disaster impacts is not solely restricted to economic and human impacts. Psychological (post-traumatic stress), cultural, and environmental (contamination of drinking water, saltwater intrusion, etc., see lower left quadrant in Figure 1) impacts are rarely captured in disaster loss inventories. While important, they are usually not assessed in a systematic manner and translated into monetary terms for inclusion in loss inventories. The same goes for recovery expenditures or so-called costs incurred by individuals, organizations, businesses, and governments. For an in-depth discussion of costs and how economists differentiate losses in stocks and flows see elsewhere (Rose 2004;Cochrane 2004;NRC 2012). ...
Context 2
... direct economic as well as direct human losses dominate existing loss inventories (see upper right quadrant in Figure 1), the nature of disaster impacts is not solely restricted to economic and human impacts. Psychological (post-traumatic stress), cultural, and environmental (contamination of drinking water, saltwater intrusion, etc., see lower left quadrant in Figure 1) impacts are rarely captured in disaster loss inventories. While important, they are usually not assessed in a systematic manner and translated into monetary terms for inclusion in loss inventories. The same goes for recovery expenditures or so-called costs incurred by individuals, organizations, businesses, and governments. For an in-depth discussion of costs and how economists differentiate losses in stocks and flows see elsewhere (Rose 2004;Cochrane 2004;NRC 2012). ...
Context 3
... the extensive usage of SHELDUS ® by the disaster risk reduction and research communities is not only reflected in citations and publications but obviously also in the download activity and user feedback. For five months in 2012 alone, the cumulative download request aggregated to 23.8 million records from 730 different locations in the U.S (Figure 2). Please note that Figure 1 does not show international data downloads since this background paper focuses on the use of loss data within the ...
Citations
... The impacts of disasters on the cultural heritage sector are only marginally addressed by current practice. Most of the focus of disaster impact analysis still targets the assessment of direct losses connected to the immediate physical damage caused by a disaster in certain sectors such as housing, infrastructure, industry, agriculture, and human life (Gall et al., 2014;Hallegatte, 2015). These direct losses are mostly defined by the number of fatalities/injuries, the quantity ...
... From the standpoint of attempting to estimate loss and damage at the local level, SHELDUS is best suited for that purpose [19]. This database, although limited to the United States, provides records at the county level, the most disaggregate geographic delineation among the group, and has a lower reporting threshold such that more event information is available. ...
Extreme weather, climate-induced events that are episodic (e.g., hurricane, heatwave) or chronic (e.g., sea-level rise, temperature change) in nature, is occurring with increasing frequency and severity. This places a growing and time-sensitive need on the development and implementation of adaptation policies and practices. To motivate adaptive behavior, however, requires the ability to deliver improved risk-informed decision-making capability. At the crux of this challenge is the provision of full and accurate loss and damage accounting of the overall impact of an extreme weather event, enabling the business case to be made for adaptation investment. We define loss and damage as the manifestation of impacts associated with extreme weather that negatively affect human and natural systems. Progress in the development of adequate loss and damage accounting has been hampered by issues, such as discrepancies in conceptual frameworks, problems associated with data quantity and quality, and lack of standardized analysis methodologies. In this paper, we have discussed the conceptual basis for measuring loss and damage, reviewed the state of loss and damage data collection and modeling, and offered a narrative on the future direction of the practice.
... The most widely used indicators of disaster impacts involve measures of physical damage to property, infrastructure, agriculture and human life, which are commonly termed direct losses (Gall, Emrich, and Cutter 2014;Hallegatte 2015). Direct losses are mostly defined by monetary damage, fatalities and injuries, and currently dominate all other loss measures due to the tangible nature of physical damage. ...
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) upholds the development and implementation of measures to reduce hazard exposure and vulnerability to disasters. Among other aspects, the SFDRR recognizes the importance of cultural heritage and its irreplaceable value for society, thus emphasizing the need to assess the impact that potential hazards may have on cultural heritage assets. One of the challenges for the disaster risk management sector is to integrate losses that are difficult to monetize into loss estimation procedures to obtain a sound quantification of disaster impacts. In this context, the losses to cultural heritage and the relation between them and society are particularly important.
In light of this, a new indicator is proposed that provides a quantitative estimate of the loss in value of cultural heritage assets damaged by hazardous events. The loss in value is estimated as a function of the (physical) damage that cultural heritage assets sustained and of the positive estimated economic impact that cultural heritage has in a given country or region. The proposed indicator is not meant to reflect the true value of economic losses. Instead, it reflects a standardized measure of potential economic losses that is comparable across countries or regions. Details of the methodology are presented along with an illustrative application to a case study.
“Climate Change and Disaster Forensics” relates and applies forensic theory, insight and analysis to disaster related research and practice. It explores, describes and explains human causality of climate change related disasters and their impact on human and environmental losses. The chapter also identifies and describes new and innovative methodologies and strategies to analyze climate related disasters, reduce disaster risk, and improve disaster mitigation, adaption, and management. Emphasis is given to vigilant monitoring and assessment of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to limit global warming to 2 °C by 2030, a critical target set to prevent some of the worst impacts of climate change.
