Organization

Climate change is causing severe weather and hydrological disasters such as typhoons, torrential rains, floods, landslides, wildfires, high temperatures, and droughts, which are becoming more frequent and severe. As temperatures rise, the amount of water vapor that the atmosphere can contain increases, which in turn activates weather disturbances, and changes in atmospheric circulation can lead to abnormal weather events. For example, changes in westerly winds and ocean currents will result in unprecedented weather and climate. However, the impact of climate change is poorly understood in quantitative terms. The importance of understanding quantitative data on loss and damage caused by so-called climate change has been discussed at the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) over the past few years, but there are major challenges in accumulating data on damage caused by disasters in each country. Progress has been particularly slow in developing countries, where global warming is expected to have a profound impact. To change this situation, the IRIDeS and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) established the Global Centre for Disaster Statistics in 2015 and have been working to accumulate disaster loss and damage data in each country.

 

In addition to disaster damage data, the Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction Lab will work with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to accumulate hazard data, particularly related to meteorology and hydrology, and　compare these data to analyze how much damage has already been caused by disasters due to climate change, and how this will change in the future. The project will also simultaneously identify development trends in urban and rural areas of the world, and how human societies will be exposed to meteorological and hydrological hazards, and will then provide a platform for experts from various fields to discuss issues such as climate migrants forced to migrate due to climate change, food　security issues, and sustainable development and its measures, etc. The project will establish a platform for experts in various fields to consider the following issues. We also plan to predict the future of extreme weather events and disaster damage　caused by global warming and to elucidate the mechanisms of such events.