Exposure to natural hazard events unassociated with policy change for improved disaster risk reduction

This study investigates the relationships between the frequency (number of events) and severity (fatalities, economic losses, and affected people) of natural hazards and DRR policy change in 85 countries over eight years. Natural hazard events provide opportunities for policy change to enhance disaster risk reduction (DRR), yet it remains unclear whether these events actually fulfill this transformative role around the world.

The results show that frequency and severity factors are generally unassociated with improved DRR policy when controlling for income-levels, differences in starting policy values, and hazard event types. This is a robust result that accounts for event frequency and different hazard severity indicators, four baseline periods estimating hazard impacts, and multiple policy indicators. Although the study shows that natural hazards are unassociated with improved DRR policy globally, it unveils variability in policy progress between countries experiencing similar levels of hazard frequency and severity.