DOI: 10.7910/dvn/tfbaoh
title: Global hotspots of climate-related disasters (dataset related to the paper Donatti etal.2024)

description: This dataset "Global hotspots of climate related disasters" shows the number of people impacted by climate-related disasters recorded in the EM-DAT database between 2000 and 2020. This dataset was used to prepare the maps and the analysis of the paper Donatti C.I., Nicholas K., Fedele G., Delforge D., Speybroeck N., Moraga P., Blatter J., Below R., Zvoleff A. 2024. Global hotspots of climate-related disasters. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2024.104488. 

This dataset includes information on people impacted by Drought, tropical cyclones, flash flood, riverine flood, forest fire, land fire, heat wave, landslide and mudslide. Data on coastal flood was not included because the database only had recordings until 2013. Data on disaster sub-types “landslides” and “mudslides” as presented in the EM-DAT were further combined as one single climate-related disaster (“land and mudslides”) for the analyses. Likewise, data on disaster sub-types “forest fire” and “land fire” were further combined as one climate-related disaster (“wildfire”). 

The data was accessed directly from the EM-DAT database and then summarized as show in the dataset. We used this database, downloaded on June 2nd 2021, to access data on “total affected” people and the “total deaths” per disaster event impacting a country (i.e., an entry in the EM-DAT), which were combined in this study to create the variable “total people impacted”. In the EM-DAT database, “total affected” represents the sum of people “injured,” “affected,” and “homeless” resulting from a particular event. “Injured” were considered those that have suffered from physical injuries, trauma, or an illness requiring immediate medical assistance, including people hospitalized, as a direct result of a disaster, “affected” were considered people requiring immediate assistance during an emergency and “homeless” were considered those whose homes were destroyed or heavily damaged and therefore needed shelter after an event. “Total deaths” include people that have died or were considered missing, those whose whereabouts since the disaster were unknown and presumed dead based on official figures. More details can be found under “documentation, data structure and content description” at emdat.be.

In the dataset, "ADM-CODE" refers to the code used to identify each administrative area, which refers to the code of FAO's Global Administrative Unit Layer, GAUL.
description: dataset in QGIS (please note that there are some variations in the file names, but for each type of disaster, there are only 2 files in qgis: one for people/km2 in administrative areas and one for people/total population in administrative areas):
"ranking_"name of disaster"_people_km2_feb 2023.qgz" . This map shows the ranking of people impacted based on the number of people impacted/km2 in each administrative area. For "name of disaster", "allcombined"=all disasters combined; "cyclone"= tropical cyclones data only; "drought"= Droughts; etc.
"ranking_"name of disaster"_people_total_people_feb2023.qgz". This map shows the ranking of people impacted based on the number of people impacted/total people in each administrative area. For "name of disaster", "allcombined"=all disasters combined; "cyclone"= tropical cyclones data only; "drought"= Droughts; etc.

Those maps were produced based on the following datasets in csv (please note that there are some variations in the file names, but for each type of disaster, there are only 2csv files: one for people/km2 in administrative areas and one for people/total population in administrative areas):

"rankingallcombinedkm2.csv", which was used to prepare the map that can be visualized using "ranking_"name of disaster"_people_km2_feb 2023.qgz" which shows the ranking of people impacted based on the number of people impacted/km2 in each administrative area. For "name of event", "allcombined"=all disasters combined; "cyclone"= tropical cyclones data only; "drought"= Droughts; etc.

"rankingallcombinedmar2023.csv", which was used to prepare then map that can be visualized using "ranking_"name of disaster"_people_total_people_feb2023.qgz". This map shows the ranking of people impacted based on the number of people impacted/total people in each administrative area. For "name of disaster", "allcombined"=all disasters combined; "cyclone"= tropical cyclones data only; "drought"= Droughts; etc.

In each of the csv files:

ADM_CODE: code of the administrative area based on the code of FAO's Global Administrative Unit Layer, GAUL

allpeopleimpacted_total= total number of people impacted by the "name of the disaster" in each administrative area

allpop_yearofevent_total=total population in each administrative area (ADM_CODE) in the year that the disaster event happened

allpeopleimpacted_total_pop_yearofevent_total=total number of people impacted by the "name of the disaster" in each administrative area/total population in each administrative area (ADM_CODE) in the year that the disaster event happened

allpeopleimpacted_total_km2=total number of people impacted by the "name of the disaster" in each administrative area/area in km2 of the administrative area (ADM_CODE)

km2= area in km2 of the administrative area (ADM_CODE)

quartile=quartile used to rank the magnitude of the impact (1=low impact, 4= very high impact)