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Railway structures are endangered by natural hazards. A better understanding of historical railway disaster events and the exposure of railway infrastructures to natural hazards will facilitate railway planning and disaster risk management. This article compiles internet news to build the first database of Chinese railway disasters from 2000 to 2016. Based on the database, the temporal and spatial characteristics of main railway natural disasters and their driving factors are analyzed. By exploring the relationship between the railway disaster and hazard intensity, railway hazard susceptibility maps were generated. The results reveal that 34.35%, 1.91%, 18.22% and 7.18% of railway lines are exposed to very high hazard susceptibility values related to rainfall, gale, earthquake and tropical cyclone, respectively. A multihazard map was further developed based on the single-hazard maps, and we found that 15.10% of railway lines are exposed to very high multihazard susceptibility values. This is the first study to quantify the exposure of China’s railway to multiple natural hazards. The methodology and results provided in this study have profound significance for the disaster risk management of the Chinese railway system and provide useful experience for other countries.

Objective:Disaster impact databases are important resources for informing research, policy, and decision making. Therefore, understanding the underpinning methodology of data collection used by the databases, how they differ, and quality indicators of the data recorded is essential in ensuring that their use as reference points is valid.Methods:The Australian Disaster Resilience Knowledge Hub (AIDRKH) is an open-source platform supported by government to inform disaster management practice. A comparative descriptive review of the Disaster Mapper (hosted at AIDRKH) and the international Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) was undertaken to identify differences in how Australian disasters are captured and measured.Results:The results show substantial variation in identification and classification of disasters across hazard impacts and hazard types and a lack of data structure for the systematic reporting of contextual and impact variables.Conclusions:These differences may have implications for reporting, academic analysis, and thus knowledge management informing disaster prevention and response policy or plans. Consistency in reporting methods based on international classification standards is recommended to improve the validity and usefulness of this Australian database.

Exposure elements in open-access disaster databases that are relevant to critical infrastructure and basic services in the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR) were transformed into spatial data, to investigate the impact of flash flood hazards in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In this era of big data and hyper-connectivity, the availability of open-access data on exposure elements across scales and systems is largely unknown. Information on exposure elements and hazard susceptibility provide important insights to enhance community resilience, to move away from merely managing disasters to managing the risk of disasters, in line with the SFDRR. The case study of Kuala Lumpur enabled an assessment of information availability in existing disaster databases and within the national system, to facilitate informed decision-making. Findings reveal that there are a total of 26 databases on the internet that provide information on disasters and related elements; of which 18 are global, three are regional and four provide information at the national scale. However, only ten databases are open access where the user is able to easily retrieve information while others provide a “view only option”. The coverage of exposure elements in disaster databases is very poor where only five databases carried such information; and it is not useful for local scale application. Thus, information was sought from multiple open data sources within the national system and transformed into spatial data, to develop an exposure element data inventory for the city. There are 509 exposure elements within Kuala Lumpur, covering 33 private and government hospitals and community clinics; 189 public and private schools and institutions higher education; 261 facilities that provide basic services; and 26 features that represent of social and economic aspects. The exposure elements, which is coherent with the SFDRR, benefits decision-making when overlain with existing flood hazard zones and susceptible areas. Moving forward, emerging hazards due to climate change will be evaluated to strengthen informed decision-making and build community resilience in the city. The empowerment of local level research has great potential to advance open sharing of information on disaster and climate risks in the region.

In this study, both human and material damages caused by different types of flooding in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA) were determined for the first time. Human damages (fatalities, evacuated and displaced people) were obtained from the DISASTER database (1865–2010 period). Material damages’ estimation was obtained from the Portuguese Association of Insurers database for the period 2000–2010. A classification of types of flooding based on the hydrological/physical features of the territory separating fluvial floods (slow and flash floods) from urban flooding (related and unrelated to the ancient natural drainage network—FREN and FUNN) was used. Topographic maps from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (1:10,000 and 1:25,000 scales), information from newspapers and daily rainfall data were used to define this classification and to validate the flooding occurrences. It was concluded that: (1) during 146 years, 131 flooding events with human damages occurred in the LMA; (2) 120 flooding events with material damages were registered in 1781 places for 11 years; (3) the spatial distribution of human and material damages was very different; (4) each type of flooding caused distinct human and material damages; (5) the importance of each type of flooding varied over time due to human interventions in the territory; (6) there is a clear decrease in the mortality associated with flooding even during the extreme flooding events. This study contributes for spatial planning and insurance companies, allowing to define the temporal evolution and spatial patterns of the types of flooding, as well as to understand their future damages., Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT); Associação Portuguesa de Seguradores (APS)

The DISASTER database records 1969 unique hydro-geomorphologic cases (floods and landslides) that generated human damages in Portugal during a 150 year-period (1865–2015. The main purposes of this work are the following: to present a national disaster events catalogue; to analyse the atmospheric conditions and to discuss the role of rainfall as main driving force of the hydro-geomorphological disaster events. The main Circulation Weather Types (CWTs) and the presence of Atmospheric Rivers (ARs) of each day of the disaster events were classified using the 20CR dataset (1865–2014) and the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis (2015). These datasets were used to compute the daily cumulative precipitation and the long term climatological year accumulated precipitation 10th, 50th, 90th and 95th percentile spanning 1865–2015 and the accumulated rainfall conditions after and before each disaster event. In the central and northern Portugal Disaster events are mainly driven by southwest (SW), west (W), northwest (NW) and Cyclonic (C) Weather Types, whereas the CWTs with a southern and eastern component [east (E), southeast (SE) and south (S)] are the main drivers in the south part of the country. Cyclonic CWT is widely associated with convective systems that can generate flash floods and urban floods often responsible for fatalities and injured people. CWTs with a westerly component can be associated to prolonged wet periods that can induce flood events in the main rivers and landslides in the mountain areas. The methodology used to build this disaster event catalogue can be applicable to other study areas, namely the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean regions, where the flood and landslides extremes are related to the atmospheric circulation.

The large number of floods and landslides that occurred on 5–16 February 1979 in Portugal was a major hydro-geomorphologic extreme event according to the DISASTER database in terms of number of displaced people. The February 1979 event is the top ranked episode in terms of the total number of evacuated people (4244), displaced people (14,322) and also on the number of days of event duration (12 days) for the period 1865–2015. In this event, 62 damaging floods and five damaging landslides causing eight fatalities were recorded in Portugal. This event was driven by an unusually intense atmospheric forcing mechanism acting at different time scales. Despite the intense magnitude and the widespread impact on the population, this event has not been studied in detail. In this study, we show that the precipitation period of February 1979 had produced several multi-day accumulated precipitation events over the Portuguese continental territory, ranking among the top 10 events observed between 1950–2008. Additionally, most of the precipitation from this event occured in days in which atmospheric circulation was dominated by “wet” circulation weather types (CWTs), namely, cyclonic (C), west (W) or southwest (SW) types.

A partir da recolha hemerográfca, em jornais de circulação nacional e regional, no período entre 1865 e 2015 em Portugal continental, foi construída uma base de dados - DISASTER - com os locais geografcamente identifcáveis, afetados por cheias, inundações ou por movimentos de massa em vertentes, aos quais se associam perdas humanas (mortos, feridos, desaparecidos ou desalojados), independentemente do seu número. Os resultados mostram a evolução decenal das ocorrências, a distribuição por bacia hidrográfca e por unidades morfo-estruturais. Transparece uma distribuição global de ocorrências por todo o território continental português, com concentração de ocorrências e de impactos humanos em margens dos rios Douro e seus afluentes, no Médio e Baixo Tejo, no Baixo Mondego e Águeda, os quais são marcados dominantemente por processos de cheias progressivas ou rápidas. Verifca-se igualmente a concentração de pontos em espaços com uso e ocupação urbana intensa, como são Lisboa e o Porto e os seus municípios adjacentes, assim como a região de Coimbra ou o Algarve, em que as cheias e os processos de instabilidade de vertentes originam impactos humanos. Os episódios hidro-geomorfológicos constituem, assim, processos naturais a que se associam perdas humanas com mortos e feridos, ou um elevado número de evacuados e desalojados, traduzindo um território de inquietação para a população e para os gestores do risco. A partir de la recopilación hemerográfca, en periódicos de circulación nacional y regional, en el período comprendido entre 1865 y 2015 en Portugal continental, se construyó una base de datos - DISASTER - con los lugares geográfcamente identifcables afectados por riadas, inundaciones o movimientos en masa de laderas, a los que se asocian pérdidas humanas (muertos, heridos, desaparecidos o desalojados), independientemente de su número. Los resultados muestran la evolución por décadas de las catástrofes, la distribución por cuenca hidrográfca y por unidades morfo-estructurales. Revelan una distribución global de eventos por todo el territorio continental portugués, con concentración de acontecimientos con pérdidas humanas en las márgenes de los ríos Duero y sus afluentes, en el Medio y Bajo Tajo, el Bajo Mondego y el Águeda, los cuales son afectados principalmente por procesos de riadas progresivas o rápidas. Se verifca igualmente la concentración de puntos en espacios con uso y ocupación urbana intensa, como son Lisboa y Oporto y sus municipios adyacentes, así como la región de Coímbra o el Algarve, en los que las riadas y los procesos de inestabilidad de laderas provocan daños humanos. Los episodios hidro-geomorfológicos constituyen, así, procesos naturales a los que se asocian pérdidas humanas con muertos, heridos, o un elevado número de evacuados y desalojados, revelando un territorio de inquietud para la población y para los gestores de riesgos. From hemerographic collection in national and regional newspapers, in the period between 1865 and 2015 in mainland Portugal, a database was built - DISASTER - with geographically identifable sites, affected by floods or landslides, which are associated with human losses (casualties, injuries, missing, evacuated or homeless people), regardless of their number. The results show the decennial evolution of the occurrences, the distribution by hydrographic basin and by morpho-structural units. There is a global distribution of occurrences across the Portuguese mainland, with concentrations of occurrences and human impacts on the banks of the Douro river and its tributaries, in the middle and lower Tagus, in the lower Mondego and Águeda, which are dominantly marked by progressive or flash flooding processes. It is also verifed the concentration of occurrences in spaces with intense use and urban occupation, such Lisbon and Porto and its adjacent municipalities, as well as the region of Coimbra or the Algarve, where flooding and the slope instability cause human impacts. The hydrogeomorphological episodes are thus natural processes associated with human losses with the casualties and injuries, or a high number of evacuated and homeless people, translating a territory of concern for the population and risk managers.

Social impacts caused by floods and landslides in Portugal in the period of 1865-2010 are gathered in the DISASTER database. This database contains 1,902 hydro-geomorphologic cases that caused 1,248 fatalities (81% and 19% associated with floods and landslides, respectively). The use of the DISASTER database allowed for: (i) the analysis of the frequency and the temporal evolution of fatal floods and landslides; (ii) the analysis of the spatio-temporal distribution of fatalities; (iii) the identification of the most deadly flood and landside types; (iv) the verification of gender tendencies in mortalities; and (v) the evaluation of individual and societal risk. The highest number of flood and landslide cases and related mortalities occurred in the period of 1935-1969. After this period, the number of flood and landslide mortalities decreased, although landslide fatalities remained higher than those registered in the period of 1865-1934. The occurrence of flood fatalities was widespread in the country, with an important cluster in the Lisbon region and in the Tagus valley, while fatalities caused by landslides mainly occurred in the north of the Tagus valley. Flash floods caused the majority of fatalities associated with floods, while falls and flows were responsible for the highest number of fatalities associated with landslides. Males were found to have the highest frequency of fatalities. In the case of floods, the majority of fatalities were found both outdoors and inside of buildings in rural areas while fatalities inside buildings were dominant in landslide cases, mostly in rural areas.

This paper presents the results of a research concerning available historical information about natural hazards (landslides and floods) and consequent disasters in the Consortium of Mountain Municipalities of Valtellina di Tirano, in Northern Italy. A geo-referenced database, collecting information till 2008, was designed with the aim of using available data of historical events for hazard estimation and the definition of risk scenarios as a basis for Civil Protection planning and emergency management purposes. This database and related statistics about landslides and floods are shown and a brief overview of historical disasters caused by natural hazards in the study area is presented. A case study showing how useful the database could be to define a simple but realistic scenario is described. Information availability and reliability is discussed and possible uncertainties are underlined. The study shows that collecting and making use of historical information for the definition of hypothetical scenarios and the evaluation of territorial threats is a fundamental source of knowledge to deal with future emergencies.