Risk Perception, Location Choice and Land-use Patterns under Disaster Risk: Long-term Consequences of Information Provision in a Spatial Economy

Abstract

It appears that the number of death and magnitude of damage due to natural disaster is increasing in the last decades. Worldwide economic losses due to natural disasters are increased exponentially: the measured worldwide economic loss in 1990s is US$608.5 billion and is nine times larger than in 1960s according to Munich Re (2003). Although the number of the catastrophic events in the 1990s is three times as large as in 1960s, the economic loss per event has increased in the three times faster than the growth of the number. There is no doubt that accumulation of population and assets into the disaster prone area is one of the main factors which cause such a large increase in economic losses due to natural disasters.