Using Indicators to Advance Multi-(Hazard)-Risk Management

This project aims to understand whether existing risk management indicators (observable and measurable characteristics to understand a current state or monitor change) support "multi-(hazard)-risk management" and identify opportunities to strengthen their application in this context. Multi-hazard means:

"(1) the selection of multiple major hazards that the country faces, and (2) the specific contexts where hazardous events may occur simultaneously, cascadingly or cumulatively over time, and taking into account the potential interrelated effects." (UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), 2016)

In this context, multi-hazard approaches include but extend beyond the collation (or overlay) of distinct information for multiple natural hazards, to also characterise hazard interrelationships. The identification of spatially relevant hazards is important, but failure to consider interrelationships (and their effects on exposure/vulnerability) can distort risk management priorities or result in an underestimation of risk.

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), the UN strategy to reduce disaster losses, explicitly calls for DRR practices to be 'multi-hazard' and includes a specific target relating to multi-hazard early warning systems and disaster risk information (UNDRR, 2015). Progress in the implementation of the Sendai Framework is monitored through 38 indicators, including two on the multi-hazard target (G1, G2).

Indicators are used in different ways, including comparing risk levels spatially and over time by measuring progress towards a desired future state. Indicators therefore help to identify priority interventions to guide disaster risk management actions (Brecht et al., 2013). An initial review of literature on multi-(hazard)-risk indicators undertaken in the H2020 MYRIAD-EU project (Gill et al., 2022) suggests that these typically focus on individual hazards or do not provide the guidance required to evaluate multi-(hazard)-risk management.