Malta among countries least exposed to natural disasters

Malta is second only to Qatar as the country in the world that scored the “lowest risk” of natural disasters and climate change, according to a report issued earlier this month by the United Nations.

The new WorldRiskReport 2011, issued by the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) and edited by the Bündnis Entwicklung Hilft, looks at how vulnerable communities worldwide are affected by natural hazards. At the same time, modern media, the Internet and social networking tools all ensure that news about today’s disasters are delivered to global audiences in real time, via our televisions, computers and smartphones.

The report examines whether our increased awareness of hazards and vulnerability correlate to a rise in actual disaster risk reduction, and attempts to rate and compare the risks posed to different countries by natural hazards and climate change. It also offers scientists and practitioners a tool to evaluate the interactions between exposure to natural hazards and climate change , and factors of social vulnerability (such as levels of poverty, education, food security and governance).

The WorldRiskIndex, developed by UNU-EHS, is the core feature of the report. The index calculates and compares risk values for 173 countries worldwide, and shows regions and countries that face a high disaster risk.

Countries are ranked based on four key components that take both natural hazards and social factors into account: exposure (to natural hazards and potential risks), susceptibility (likeliness of suffering harm, susceptibility as a function of public infrastructure), coping capacities (governance and capacity to reduce negative consequences of hazards) and adaptive capacities (capacity for long-term social change).

The report clarifies that disasters cannot be attributed to meteorological or geological phenomena alone, but that they are determined also by social structures and processes.

Malta scored 0.72% on the WorldRiskIndex compared to 32.00% for Vanuatu, that scored highest. The other indicators for Malta in the report are exposure (2.15%), vulnerability (33.34%), susceptibility (15.21%), lack of coping capacities (50.13%) and lack of adaptive capacities (34.67%) – all of which Malta scored well within the acceptable limits. The last two figures were even better than those of the highest scoring nation, Qatar.