Although climate information is rarely the only variable factoring into a particular situation, it is nonetheless valuable to agriculturists, the energy sector, resource managers, aid workers, and a variety of other users. Although the ENSO Compendium relies heavily upon datasets and reports of natural disasters in order to obtain a comparable reference and baseline, it should be noted that the research project is not trying to describe the relationship between human systems and catastrophe. Rather the emphasis is on climate variability. Fundamentally these are two very different concepts. Whereas the study of natural disaster covers only the extremes and negative impacts of climate and weather, climate variability attempts to address interaction.
Climate variability captures disaster, abundance, and the adaptation of society.
Data for the Compendium was compiled from a variety of news and wire services as well as country and international agency reports. A simple criterion was then applied to give rank and precedence to preferred references. In general a priority was given to reports from UN agencies or governments, academic journals, then wire services, then media, and finally NGO or corporate-produced figures. Once the data was filtered and assembled, region-specific trends as well as interregional relationships were identified. Beneficial effects were described through anecdotal information due to poor reporting.