Special issue  

Global as well as local processes (including feedback loops across scales) may enhance or suppress hazard intensities and impacts. Additionally, differential rates of climate change and varying levels of societal preparedness also drive the varying distributional impacts of such events. This calls for novel systemic approaches to assess the indirect and intangible impacts – especially the interplay of hazards and their impacts on health and society after events. This trans-disciplinary topic requires insights into spatial and temporal changes in the dynamics of vulnerability (e.g. socioeconomic and demographic characteristics) in the context of cascading or compound impacts, which is often lacking in conventional risk assessments.

This special issue (SI) welcomes papers dealing with this complex context with a special focus on (but not limited to) the following:

1. assessing indirect impacts of natural hazards, including acute, slow-onset, or a combination of concurrent and cascading hazards;
2. intangible impacts beyond the standard direct monetizable losses (e.g. disruption of critical services and supply, business interruption, loss of irreplaceable items or ecosystem services);
3. impacts on physical and mental health and (future) health impacts of long-term exposure to climatic stressors and adaptation to prevent adverse health outcomes;
4. impacts on specific population groups (e.g. socially vulnerable groups), differential vulnerability, and impacts on healthcare systems;
5. exploring novel data and methods for mapping temporal and spatial social vulnerability (e.g. machine learning, spatial disaggregation techniques) and analysing temporal and spatial dynamics in social vulnerability (both observed changes and future changes).