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).
St. Vincent and the Grenadines is at risk to several natural hazards, including floods, hurricanes, cyclones, droughts, landslides, and volcanic eruptions.
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.
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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.
- Since 1900, Saint Vincent has been hit by 8 storms, the strongest being Category 4 Hurricane Allen, which passed between Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent in 1980. Hurricane Hazel (Category 1), and Hurricane Lenny (Category 4) have also severely affected the country.
- Being in the path of the Atlantic hurricane belt, the most common threat to this country is the potential for hurricanes and tropical storms. High winds and rainfall, coupled with the mountainous terrain, are the principal risk factors.
- Landslides, mainly on the larger islands, are significant hazard risks and the risk is elevated during the seasonal rains. Coastal flooding is also a major concern, particularly relating to storm surges and high wave action.
- The Grenadines have no rivers and rainwater harvesting is their main source of water. Hence, they are more susceptible to drought.
More information on natural hazards can be found at ThinkHazard.