Small and frequent disasters due to climate variability and change: an accumulative development problem

Abstract

Small disasters contrary to the extreme and extraordinary events are very often not visible at the national level and their effects are not relevant from a macro-economic point of view. They usually affect the livelihoods of poor people in rural areas and small municipalities, perpetuating their level of poverty and human insecurity as factors of social vulnerability. Risk regarding small disasters frequently is not considered as relevant, nevertheless due to their accumulated impact and recurrence, they are a social, economic and environmental problem with big implications. These events are primarily related to persistent hazards such as landslides, avalanches, floods, forest fires, droughts and so on resulting from socio-ecological processes associated with climate variability, change and environment deterioration.