Reclassifying disasters in a compound perspective: Insights from existing databases

Natural disasters often result from compound events, where multiple interacting drivers converge across spatial and temporal scales, significantly amplifying their severity. The concept of compound events has gained increasing attention in recent literature, offering opportunities to enhance disaster understanding, while also presenting challenges and open issues for modern risk assessment frameworks. Traditional classification systems, which primarily focus on single hazards, often fail to capture the complex interconnections and cascading effects that define compound events. This study investigates the potential for reclassifying disasters from a compound perspective, leveraging insights derived from existing databases. By analyzing patterns of hazard interactions and co-occurrence, the research underscores the critical need for a paradigm shift in disaster classification. It highlights the limitations of conventional approaches in representing the multidimensional nature of risks and the cascading impacts that emerge from compound hazards. Reclassifying disasters from a compound perspective not only enriches our knowledge of hazard dynamics but also provides actionable pathways for improving risk assessment, informing adaptive policies, and enhancing resilience to the growing complexity of environmental challenges. In an era of rapid climatic and socio-environmental changes, such an approach is crucial for effective disaster preparedness and mitigation strategies.