2.

World Risk Index: Concept and results

Overview:
According to the study that was constructed by the United Nations University Institute for
Environment and Human Security, Vanuatu is the world – most at-risk country for natural
hazards.

2.1 Objectives:
The Notion of the World Risk Index provides or evaluates Climate Change, Natural Hazards'
exposure, and Disaster Risk faced by many countries and how they cope with these Hazards'
impacts. In this context, natural hazard events include (Earthquakes, Storm, Tsunami, Tornado,
Drought) that is mainly caused by nature. By including a vulnerability in our knowledge of
disaster risk, we identify the processes of Susceptibility, Coping, and Adaptation – these are
the four components of the World Risk Index globally & Locally. The Adaptive Capacity relates
to endure disastrous events & adjust to possible damages caused by natural disasters. At times,
susceptibility, coping capacities, and adaptive capacities can distinguish between the phases –
before, during, and after – a disaster (Wisner 2002, Birkmann and Fernando 2008).

2.2 Four Components:

The World Risk Index provides vital information that will benefit each nation and prevent more
damage caused by natural disasters. To avoid damage initiated by natural disasters, we must
enable adaptation to be an environmental and societal change. By enabling this adjustment, we
may be able to change permanently. So here are the Four Components:

I. Exposure
In the World Risk Index, they are prone to natural hazard events, meaning they are
affected by these natural risks. Moreover, this information includes people,
economy, infrastructure, goods, and many more. It is considered an exposure when
Natural Hazard impacts it. However, when a country has no exposure to Natural
Hazard, it is considered negligence. Besides, adequate information and calculations

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 2. World Risk Index: Concept and results
are needed to avoid natural risks and damage. The following five natural hazards
were therefore selected:

II. Susceptibility
Susceptibility is the damages in case of the incident, and it implies that people face
natural hazards in society, and many are affected by this natural hazard occurrence.
It includes Infrastructure, Housing Conditions, Economic Income, and more.
Furthermore, making up a temporary hypothesis upon societies' relative
susceptibility by providing these characteristics is possible.

III. Coping
Coping helps reducing or to minimize the adverse effects caused by natural hazards
and climate change. To properly reduce the impacts of natural hazards requires
instant action and technological resources. The following five sub-categories to
characterize the component:

To cope with the natural hazard's interaction is vital in society; hence, they can
manage these hazards.

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 2. World Risk Index: Concept and results

IV. Adaptation
Adaptation Implies the society to enable change to deal with expected negative
impacts of natural hazards and climate change. It helps the community adapt or
change to a new environment. By contrast with coping capacities, adaptive
capacities and measures aimed at the transformation of current structures.

2.3 Data and Methods:

Overview:
This section provides the indicators of the four components of the World Risk Index
based on in-depth research. The Four components indicators, such as Exposure,
Susceptibility, Coping, and Adaptive capacities, are equally evaluated for different
natural hazards. Furthermore, the indicators are producing hypothetical facts that
should be accurate and simple to understand. To improve the development of the
World Risk Index, they conduct Statistical Analysis in which they include scientific
annexe to this research using geographical properties for early development by
qualitative categorization "very high – high – medium-low – very low."

In exposure, it shows the indicators and their

respective division in the relevant components
and sub-categories. The population is exposed
and significantly affected by these natural
hazards.

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 2. World Risk Index: Concept and results

Indicators:
The indicators contain essential information that is appropriately calculated by the
World Risk Index concerning the four components. It Is extracted globally by the raw
data and converted by levels & rankings.

Susceptibility:
As we can see, the Structure of the component
susceptibility index indicates overall data or global
data that provides 100% when we add it up. The
data shows & describes the susceptibility of
societies and social groups at the national level.
However, the housing conditions contain
insufficient data, but it is also considered an
essential category of susceptibility by observing
the remote sensing when the earthquake may
arise. It also calculated in B1 to improve the
susceptibility of the population through improving
clean water and sanitations.

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 2. World Risk Index: Concept and results

Coping Capabilities:
The Structure of the component coping shows &
describes the data collected globally. This
indicator helps reduce the harmful effects of
Natural Hazard and Climate change occurrence.
Besides, it concerns the framework conditions
that make it difficult to cope with the direct
effects of earthquakes, floods, storms, and so
forth. The Disaster Preparedness because of the
small number of countries who submitted reports.
The second is Social Networks in which is also
essential when it comes to emergencies;
however, there are no data since it is excluded
from the overall calculation.

Adaptive Capabilities:
The indicators shows & describe the adaptation
and transformation of societies and sociological
ecosystem. All the subcategories from A – K are
taken into account as appropriate weighting.

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 2. World Risk Index: Concept and results

Exposure to Natural Hazards

Many areas & countries are greatly affected by different types of Natural Hazards such
as Earthquakes, Floods, Storms, forest fires, and even volcanic eruptions. Besides, data
and indicators keep some of the countries safe from these hazards. Many countries are
still affected due to a lack of data. These hazards caused by nature were responsible for
the death tolls of 88% recorded from 1970 – 2005. The World Risk Index is observing
and creating data to slow and decrease natural hazards' harmful effects. In a nutshell,
people exposed to these natural hazards are considered and added in the Work Risk
Index's appropriately evaluated data.

: Structure of the Global index

Calculation of The World Risk Index

The illustration above is individually evaluated and calculated ( 99 % ¿. In the Vulnerability index,
the societal risk factor can develop into a natural catastrophe; the vulnerability calculation is
multiplied by exposure to determine the risk. It includes the like hood of suffering harm, lack of
capacities to reduce negative impacts during the disaster, and the lack of capacity for societal
change. The World Risk Index correctly calculates the data by converting it to percentage.

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 2. World Risk Index: Concept and results

2.4 Opportunities and limitations of the World Risk Index

The development of indices is ultimately a systematic and creative process, in which
representative variables must be identified, calculated, and evaluated to solve specific
problems (Meyer 2004). Developing database possesses advantages and disadvantages
that affect the World Risk Index. The Advantage of working with the indicators is
reducing a complicated situation to a single overall value. However, it also has
limitations in developing World Risk Index, the Level of Abstraction, Data Availability,
and Resolution.

Level of Abstraction:
The merging into one value indicates that the scale of the evaluation will no longer be
visible. Besides, the scientist's information for collaboration of the World Risk Index is a
great significance.

Data Availability:
The World Risk Index provides good data capabilities & qualities and calculated for
173/192 countries. The Calculations used to calculate data that has exposure to
vulnerability countries & greatly affected by Natural Hazards based on different types of
database. The year's reference is a limiting factor because it is not noticeable for all the
same year indicators.

Resolution:
Many Indicators are using data as a vital reference, especially for governmental
purposes provided by the World Risk Index. To solve the problems of experiencing
different kinds of disaster hazards in some countries such as China, USA, India, and
Brazil, the World Risk Index provides a local context that every nation should consider
and adopt.

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