Climate change and extreme weather events in Latin America: an exposure index

This paper introduces a new method of measuring vulnerability and exposure to extreme weather events (EWEs) call the Disaster Exposure Index (DEI). The DEI identifies new indicators of vulnerability so that Latin American governments justify their claims for financial and technical assistance in preparing for EWEs.

The paper is divided into five sections: (i) section one introduces climate change and its effects on the global environment; (ii) section two presents and explains disaster data from Latin America; (iii) section three discusses different measurements of exposure and vulnerability, and the author presents a new method of measurement, the DEI; (iv) section four discusses the hazards which impact Latin America and the vulnerability of Latin American countries in order to identify new indicators of exposure; (v) section five concludes the document by assessing the effectiveness of the DEI measurement method against its application in Latin America.