Building a global and rapid event impact attribution framework

While event attribution has made considerable progress in the last two decades, event impact attribution, which calculates the attributable share of impacts from extreme weather events, remains challenging. Impacts result from the interaction between the intensity of hazards, the exposure of affected areas and the vulnerability of individuals, infrastructures and the environment. Across different types of extreme weather events, impacts and world regions, a wide range of datasets and approaches need to be considered to tackle this complex and interdisciplinary field of research.

Here, we aim to develop simple methods that can be deployed rapidly and globally to estimate attributable impacts in the aftermath of extreme weather events. We will present initial work on attributing direct economic impacts from tropical cyclones and on an updated global physical asset database used in this context.

This initiative produces near-real-time results that can be communicated in a timely manner to a broad audience, raising awareness about the impacts of extreme weather and the role of climate change. It ultimately seeks to provide valuable information on losses and damages and levels of adaptation, which can be instrumental for policymaking, climate justice and preparing societies for future extremes.