Integrating Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation: A Critical Review on Methodologies Addressing Multi-Hazard Risks

In recent years extreme climate events have been increasing in frequency and severity. Multi-hazard risks and its cascading effects cause higher economic and non-economic losses, such as human lives and declines in people’s well-being. This brings forward the need for improvement in disaster risk reduction measures, including the transition from a response-based to a preventive-based measures to minimize the loss in the future. However, adaptation measures differ based on the local context, which also means one methodology in assessing disaster risk reduction in one area might be different to another. This paper will analyse the existing assessment methodologies addressing the measures taken in reducing multi-hazard risks, taking into consideration the local characteristics where the methodology is applied, the type of multi-hazards, the most effected sectors and vulnerable groups, the future scenarios considered, and the costs and benefits of the measures which are included in the assessment. The type of hazards considered in this paper are based on The HuT Nexus Project, including forest fires, landslides, droughts, heatwaves, floods, and storm-surges. The aim of this paper is to review the methodologies of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation assessment and analyse the strengths and weaknesses thus enhancing the possibility to be transferred and adapted in other case studies.