A Bespoke Approach to Quantifying the Impacts of Disasters, Using
Stakeholder-relevant Metrics
Abstract
Disaster impact metrics (DIMs) are key outputs of natural-hazard risk
models/assessments that provide a tangible way of communicating risk.
However, typical DIMs are limited in that they tend to capture only
direct damage/economic losses, be specifically designed for developed
countries, account for just one snapshot in time, and be characterised
for individual assets rather than systems. These shortcomings somewhat
stem from a lack of understanding around the bespoke requirements of
different stakeholders concerning disaster impact/risk assessments.
Addressing these limitations, we propose a toolbox for characterising
context-specific DIMs that capture relevant stakeholder
priorities/requirements. The toolbox includes: (1) a comprehensive,
holistic pool of DIMs developed from a literature review and a
conceptual representation of societal dependencies; and (2) a
stakeholder-centred framework for facilitating the appropriate selection
of DIMs from this pool. We demonstrate the framework for Kathmandu,
Nepal, revealing that the relative importance of a given disaster impact
can change for different stakeholder groups and spatio-temporal
dimensions. Impacts related to direct damage/economic losses are not the
most crucial concern of the considered stakeholders. Higher priority is
placed on characterising accessibility impacts around utilities and
social networks, for instance. This work contributes to advancing the
usefulness of natural-hazard risk assessments for important
decision-making.