Adaptation to “natural” disasters (floods, hurricanes etc.)

In this lecture, we cover the second type of direct impacts : extreme events. Climate change can induce disasters in a number of ways : hurricanes, river floods, coastal floods, landslides, wildfires etc.

Adaptation to these impacts imposes changes in the way traditional risk prevention is done. this is especially due to the progressive nature of climate change, and to the quantitative uncertainties surrounding the exact magnitude of its impacts.

Required reading

How climate change affects extreme weather around the world (2022).

“Natural” disasters

Download the slides here Download the slides presented on class here.

“Natural” disasters (1)

“Natural” disasters (2)

To know more

An article by Carbon Brief about what the 2021 IPCC report says about extreme weather and climate change
The articles on the effects of climate change, on NASA website
a 2021 UN report about the increase in weather-related disasters since 50 years.
On storm surges you can see :
As a note: Hurricane Sandy, in 2012, caused destructions in New York City mainly due to its storm surge (local sea level rise during the hurricane, making the sea go inland and cause floods). Hurricane Ida, in 2021, caused destructions mainly due to its intense rainfall that overwhelmed the sewers, leading to pluvial flooding. Adaptation policies to both phenomena are different. See for instance here for an analysis.