af Magazine
～The Asahi Glass Foundation’s web magazine on the global environment～

She says that "standardized data enables the understanding of the spatial variations in disaster impacts across different regions and the data can distinguish changing trends across time."

She made two key points that are central to discussion related to climate extremes and their impacts.

The first is the rapidly-increasing proportion of climate-related disasters within the overall disaster landscape. In just around 8 years, approximately 90% of all disasters were climate-related.

These extreme phenomena are increasingly responsible for most of the loss and damages although these estimates usually only account for those items that have monetary values and losses in human lives and disabilities are not included. Specialized agencies such as the World or the regional development banks needs to review this oversight.

"Secondly, compared to previous periods, the severity of any one climate disaster is undoubtedly increasing.

The scale of damage caused by a single natural disaster is getting bigger often for the same intensity, destroying not only infrastructure and property but affecting larger and larger numbers of people Effects of these climate disasters, such as floods, cyclones, heatwaves lead to the impoverishment of families through deaths of income earners, spread of disease or loss of livelihood.

These are consequences which unquestionably form part of the consequences of climate change, namely global warming, and must be accounted for" said Professor Guha-Sapir.

When I reported the number of people affected to my boss", he pointed out that the mere number of victims is meaningless for policy use;

the data becomes meaningful only when you consider it in conjunction with other factors such as the population exposed and contextual information of each investigation area. These are basic building blocks of good epidemiology which demands clear definitions of denominators and risk factors.

"I was taken aback by this advice. I realized that accumulating precise data is essential for quantifying the human impact of disasters, and that this type of data does not provide useable information if it is not standardized and free of errors.

Since various countries were already collecting some form of disaster impact data, I thought that creating a independent centralized systematic database validating different sources could serve as useful information support system for disaster relief and mitigation efforts," Professor Guha-Sapir reflected.

"Renowned researchers in the field of disasters discounted the feasibility of collecting unified data from around the world.

There was a lot of push back from disaster response volunteers who believed that science was secondary in a situation where saving lives should be the top priority.

Additionally, in the 1990s, often public authorities intervened to question our data. For example, when we announced the number of deaths from a disaster, they claimed that the figures were too high and at other times, too low," she explained.

By mid 1990s, we gained trust from various United Nations organizations. Furthermore, our relationship with governments of disaster-prone or affected countries improved.

Many governments came to understand that accurate scientific data can be a valuable resource for formulating their own disaster policies and improve the conditions of their people" Professor Guha-Sapir explained.

For example, in disaster prone countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam, Mozambique and Bangladesh, civil society groups use EMDAT data to analyse patterns and can now target specific risk areas. EM-DAT has been a driving force to mobilize governments and provide support to public sector programs for disaster risk reduction.

Currently, EM-DAT serves as a scientific foundation for evidence-based policymaking, used by many international organizations, national governments, and research institutes working on climate change mitigation and adaptation measures; and disaster prevention and mitigation.

Professor Guha-Sapir said, "Unfortunately, epidemiological data to allow an understanding of the full human impact of climate extremes is still of poor quality and quantity.

Sudden environmental changes after floods and cyclones bring about increases in risk factors such contamination of drinking water or increases in disease carrying vectors such as mosquitoes or rats, or even mass displacement of populations leading to many different kinds of diseases including malaria or cholera. To mitigate or adapt to these environment driven effects on health of affected communities require better data on risks.

EMDAT has made remarkable progress over the last few decades, but today we need to break through data silos and work together to merge multidisciplinary data.

We need better monitoring systems using remote sensed data, ground-truthed data and contextual information to prepare for almost inevitable increase in climate disasters.

"There are three major issues in dealing with climate extremes in Japan:

heatwaves, aging population, and episodic air pollution. Although Japan has moved successfully to combat air pollution, vehicle emissions and industrial discharges can still present problems to sections of the population - especially as the combined effects of air pollution and heat waves can be significantly amplified. Furthermore, considering the high vulnerability of a large number of elderly people, I am concerned about the exacerbation from effects of climate disasters that are inevitable in the near future.

Finally, Professor Guha-Sapir encouraged young people in Japan, "Go out into the world more, observe global events and ways in which other cultures, including poorer ones, face climate extremes.

They may have good lessons for the world. Most importantly, it is important for the young to wander out of their comfort zone and cultivate a perspective that involves taking disaster risk reduction action based on stable and objective evidence."