Historical Hazards
Natural disasters in South Africa (e.g. droughts, floods, storms) have led to significant social and economic losses, which is anticipated to exacerbate as consequence of climate change. During the period of 1900-2017, above 100 disaster events were reported, resulting in 2200 death as well as 21 million affected and totaling roughly US$4.5 billion monetary loss. Fortunately, South Africa is estimated to have among the highest resilience to climate change in Africa due to its relative wealth and high adaptive capacity.
This section provides a summary of key natural hazards and their associated socioeconomic impacts in a given country. It allows for a quick assessment 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.
Metadata
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)