While the threat is already substantial, climate change and rapid urbanization in flood zones are likely to further drive up flood risks. The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report affirms the urgency of addressing the intensifying impacts of climate change and ensuring the adaptation and resilience of the most vulnerable.
In October 2020, we presented a working paper that offered insight into global flood risk exposure and its intersection with poverty. Now, using updated state-of-the-art flood data, our analysis just published in Nature Communications, estimates that 1.81 billion people face significant flood risk worldwide, substantially higher than the 1.47 billion estimated in our initial study. Our updated study uses more accurate data on fluvial, pluvial, and coastal hazards, as well as subnational poverty. It also estimates that 170 million extremely poor people are facing flood risk and its devastating long-term consequences. Together, these findings provide alarming insights into the scale of people’s exposure and their vulnerabilities to flood hazards. A few of our key findings:
FULL ORIGINAL PUBLICATION HERE
