Overall risks from climate-related impacts are evaluated based on the interaction of climate-related hazards (including hazardous events and trends) with the vulnerability of communities (susceptibility to harm and lack of capacity to adapt), and exposure of human and natural systems. Changes in both the climate system and socioeconomic processes -including adaptation and mitigation actions- are drivers of hazards, exposure, and vulnerability (IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, 2014).
This section provides a summary of key natural hazards and their associated socioeconomic impacts in a given country. And it allows quick evaluation of most vulnerable areas through the spatial comparison of natural hazard data with development data, thereby identifying exposed livelihoods and natural systems.
The charts provide overview of the most frequent natural disaster in a given country and understand the impacts of those disasters on human populations.
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Climate change is now recognized to have a significant impact on disaster management efforts and pose a significant threat to the efforts to meet the growing needs of the most vulnerable populations. The demands of disaster risk management are such that concise, clear, and reliable information is crucial. The information presented here offers insight into the frequency, impact and occurrence of natural hazards. Source (PDF)
Understanding natural hazard occurrence as well as historical climate conditions, in relation to development contexts, is critical to understanding a country’s historical vulnerability. This tool allows the visualization of different natural hazards or historical climate conditions with socio-economic and development datasets. Select the Development Context and either a Natural Hazard or Climate Condition and overlay horizontally by sliding the toggle left or right to gain a broader sense of historically vulnerable areas.
Data presented under Historical Climate Conditions are reanalysis products derived from ERA5-Land data. ERA5-Land is a global land-surface dataset at 9 km resolution, consistent with atmospheric data from the ERA5 reanalysis from 1950 onward. Climate reanalyses combine past observations with models to generate consistent time series of multiple climate variables. They provide a comprehensive description of the observed climate as it has evolved during recent decades, on 3D grids at sub-daily intervals.
This data has been collected, aggregated and processed by the Climate Resilience Cluster of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Earth Observation for Sustainable Development (EO4SD) initiative.
- Droughts are common within the Central African Republic and have serious consequences on its water resources. The northern part of CAR is most vulnerable to droughts and its vulnerability to these natural disasters has increased, accentuating the susceptibilities of the population residing in this region.
- CAR is vulnerable to many diseases (e.g. typhoid, respiratory infections, acute meningitis, diarrheal disease, malaria), with favorable conditions developing for many of these diseases during the dry season. CAR lies within the Meningitis Belt and has a high likelihood of experiencing meningococcal meningitis outbreaks each year during the dry season.
- Floods are a recurring and devastating natural disaster and are responsible for the largest share of economic and human losses as a result of natural disasters in the CAR.
More information on natural hazards can be found at ThinkHazard.
- Access to clean water is especially worrisome in the dry season and during droughts when water resources are scarce. This has adverse impacts on agriculture, public health, sanitation, and food security. Building capacity within this sector, increasing access to safe drinking water, improved water management, improved agricultural practices, and more are needed to increase CAR’s resiliency to climate change.
- Droughts are common within the Central African Republic and have serious consequences on its water resources. Establishment of early warning systems, development of drought tolerant crop varieties, and improved and increased access to medical services are needed for disaster risk reduction.
- Scarce water supplies and poor water quality during the dry season enhance the likelihood of many of these diseases, and improved water quality, water storage, and management is needed to further reduce these risks.
- More erratic behavior of rainfall may increase the risk of malaria breeding sites and subsequently transmission. Climate change is projected to exacerbate these issues and vaccination programs, widespread drug distribution, public awareness campaigns, access to safe water supplies, and improved sanitation will be imperative to decrease the public's vulnerability.