Specification of natural and technological disasters with emphasis on hydrological disasters

Abstract

This work gives an overview of disasters associated with natural and technological factors. The EM-DAT database of the University of Louvain (Belgium) is used, which has data from 1900 to 2018. Natural disasters prevail over technological ones, with respect to the amount the ratio is 66% to 34%, as for fatal victims, the records indicate that 93.2% is generated by natural disasters, in relation to the number of affected the participation of disasters of natural origin amounts to 99.8% and when considering material losses natural disasters contribute 99.2%. In addition, the following results were obtained: a) regarding the quantity, hydrological disasters occupy the first place, with 38% worldwide, 57% in South America and 58% in Argentina; b) in terms of the number of fatalities, global climate disasters account for 36%, while in South America and Argentina it is the geophysicists who generate 68% and 87%, respectively; c) considering those affected, hydrological disasters produce 48% worldwide and 95.7% in Argentina, while the weather generated 47% in South America; and d) regarding the economic losses, in the world the meteorological disasters contribute 44%, in South America the geophysicists generate 42% and in Argentina the hydrological ones produce 74%. In Argentina, hydrological disasters are those with the highest occurrence, which produce the greatest number of people affected and economic losses, but not with respect to fatalities, who contribute “only” with 8%. It is important to highlight the importance of water resource use planning policies as well as the management pre, during and after the occurrence of water disasters.