Climate change impacts and vulnerability in Europe 2016

Climate change impacts on society
Figure 5.1
Number of extreme events with recorded impacts in Europe by year and hazard category
from two data sources
Number of extreme events with recorded impacts
250
NatCatSERVICE
200
150
100
Number of extreme events with recorded impacts
100
EM-DAT
50
50
0
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
0
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
Geophysical events Meteorological events Hydrological events Climatological events
Note:
Source:
This figure shows the number of unique extreme events with recorded impacts according to hazard category based on the
NatCatSERVICE database (left) and the EM-DAT database (right). In contrast with the previous version of this report, events affecting
several countries are counted only once. Hazard categories: geophysical events (earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions);
meteorological events (storms); hydrological events (floods, mass movements); climatological events (heat waves, cold waves, droughts,
forest fires).
Munich RE NatCatSERVICE (data received under institutional agreement) and CRED EM-DAT (data received based on a Letter of
Understanding).
population, changes in intensity or frequency of climate
extremes, and changes in vulnerability. Therefore,
a direct attribution of changes in disaster burden to
any specific factor, such as climate change, should be
avoided (Visser et al., 2012).
Climate change will affect the frequency and severity
of climate extremes. Among long-term climate
extremes, heat waves are expected to increase across
Europe (see Section 3.2.3), and droughts are expected
to increase in most regions in southern Europe
(see Section 4.3.4). The direction of future changes is
uncertain for short-term meteorological extremes, such
as wind and hail storms (see Sections 3.2.6 and 3.2.7).
Model projections show a likely increase in hydrological
extremes (i.e. floods). Such an increase is likely to
occur across Europe for coastal floods owing to the
projected sea level rise (see Section 4.2.2); projections
for river floods differ for different parts of Europe
(see Section 4.3.3). Further information on projected
changes in climatic hazards in Europe based on a
multi-hazard climate risk assessment supported by the
Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) ENHANCE ( 77 )
project is provided in Section 6.2.
( 77 ) ENHANCE: 'Enhancing risk management partnerships for catastrophic natural hazards in Europe', http://enhanceproject.eu.
Climate change, impacts and vulnerability in Europe 2016 | An indicator-based report
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