World Poverty, Environmental Vulnerability and Population at Risk for Natural Hazards

Abstract

The objective of the accompanying map is to show the relation between world poverty, environmental vulnerability and population at risk for natural hazards. Sub-national infant mortality rates are used as proxy for poverty and mapped as a bivariate choropleth map together with national levels of environmental vulnerability. Past density and distribution of natural hazards were mapped on to a textonequarter degree grid and presented as an inset map. An inset map with global population densities is also provided. All maps are in Lambert cylindrical equal-area projection. The main map scale is 1:100 000 000. According to the result from the bivariate mapping of poverty and environmental vulnerability, the world can be stratified into three groups. 1) Regions with low poverty rates and relatively high degree of environmental vulnerability (e.g. Scandinavia, North America). 2) Regions with high levels of poverty and a relatively low degree of environmental vulnerability (e.g. parts of East-Africa, parts of Russia). 3) Regions with high poverty rates and high degrees of environmental vulnerability levels (e.g. middle parts of Asia). When this information is combined with that of population density and natural hazard density and distribution it is clear that those belonging to group three are very vulnerable with usually high population densities and a location prone to natural hazards. This type of small scale mapping is a good way of exploring relations between variables, observing geographical patterns and bringing forward new hypotheses for future research directions, and should be viewed as a complement to large scale mapping and field inventories.