Risk Profile: Sudden-onset hazards and the risk of future displacement in the Marshall Islands

This technical paper presents the initial assessment results of the risk of displacement associated with disasters and climate change in the Marshall Islands. Disaster displacement is one of the world's biggest humanitarian and sustainable development challenges, and climate change and urbanisation serve to aggravate the phenomenon. The inhabitants of small island developing states in the Pacific are among the world’s most exposed to disasters relative to population size.

IDMC has built upon the risk analysis developed by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction to look at future displacement risk associated with sudden-onset hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclonic winds and storm surges. This analysis considered a wide range of hazard scenarios, their likelihood and their potential to cause housing damage. It examines risk levels and uncertainties for sudden-on-set hazards by type to produce a baseline country risk profile.