Indicator catalogue

Droughts are prolonged periods of abnormal dry conditions. By impacting crop systems, livestock, and water availability, droughts particularly drive risks to food security, and water security, among other things. This indicator measures the drought status in a grid cell as SPEI over the past 12 months.

Heatwaves are periods of abnormally hot weather, lasting for at least three days. By impacting, for example, mortality and morbidity, labor productivity, and crop yields, heatwaves particularly drive risks related to human health and food security. This indicator measures the total number of heatwave days in the past 12 months in a grid cell.

Heavy precipitation events are abnormal amounts of rainfall over a short period of time. Heavy precipitation events are hazardous events that can, for example, damage crops and drive both landslides and pluvial floods. This indicator shows the number of heavy precipitation days in the past 12 months for a grid cell.

Wildfires are unplanned or uncontrolled fires. They can cause cultural loss, damage crops, and drive pollution that affects human health. This indicator shows how many km² per grid cell were exposed to at least one wildfire in the past 12 months.

Floods can drive displacement and damage crops. This indicator counts the number of days a grid cell or parts of it have been exposed to floods in the past 12 months.

Tropical cyclones are rotating storms with strong winds and heavy precipitation. Depending on the location, they are called hurricane, typhoon, or cyclone. Tropical cyclones damage crops and built environment, drive human displacement, and cause mortality. This indicator counts how many tropical cyclones occurred in a grid cell in the past 12 months.

Droughts are prolonged periods of abnormally dry conditions. By impacting crop systems, livestock, and water availability, droughts particularly drive risks to food security, and water security, among other things. This indicator measures the drought status in a grid cell over the past 7 years as the mean of SPEI-12 for the respective quarter, taking only negative SPEI values into account.

Heatwaves are periods of abnormally hot weather. They last for at least three days. By impacting mortality and morbidity, labor productivity, and crop yields, heatwaves particularly drive risks related to human health and food security. This indicator measures the mean count of annual heatwave days in the past 7 years in a grid cell.

Heavy precipitation events are abnormal amounts of rainfall over a short period of time. Heavy precipitation events are hazardous events that can, for example, damage crops and drive both landslides and pluvial floods. This indicator shows the mean count of annual heavy precipitation days in the past 7 years for a grid cell.

Wildfires are unplanned or uncontrolled fires. They can cause cultural loss, damage crops, and drive pollution that affects human health. This indicator shows how many km² per grid cell were exposed to at least one wildfire in the past 7 years.

Floods can drive displacement and damage crops. This indicator counts the mean annual number of days a grid cell or parts of it have been exposed to floods in the past 7 years.

Tropical cyclones are rotating storms with strong winds and heavy precipitation. Depending on the location, they are called hurricane, typhoon, or cyclone. Tropical cyclones damage crops and built environment, drive human displacement, and cause mortality. This indicator measures the mean annual count of how many tropical cyclones occurred in a grid cell in the past 7 years.

Changes in mean temperature describe the temperature in a place relative to pre-industrial level. An increase in temperature is associated with risks to human health and food security, amongst others. This indicator compares the annual mean surface temperature over the past 30 years to the annual mean surface temperature of 1850-1900 in a grid cell.

Relative sea level rise drives several coastal hazards such as coastal erosion, extreme sea levels, and freshwater salinization. This creates risk to living standards, food security, and human mobility. This indicator captures the average annual relative sea level rise [mm] from 1993-2015.

Long-term precipitation anomalies pose risks to human health, food security, and water security. This indicator captures the mean annual precipitation anomaly over the past 30 years relative to 1951-1980.

Intensity of violence measures the direct local effects of armed violence on human life. The more people die as a result of armed violence, the higher the intensity of armed conflict is assumed to be. The indicator is a combination of all individual instances of armed violence within a grid cell in a given quarter.

Surrounding violence accounts for the impact of conflicts not being limited only to the specific location where violence takes place. Not only does violence tend to spread geographically (“spillover effects”), but also the consequences of violence do, e.g. in the form of local migration or local economic effects. The indicator measures the average level of violence in close proximity to a grid cell based on the number of fatalities.

Persistence of violence estimates the enduring level of armed violence. It reflects the high and over time only gradually decreasing likelihood of violence recurring. Similarly, the economic and development impacts of violence are only gradually overcome with time. This indicator reflects these patterns and gives an estimate of the persistent intensity of violence based on the recent history of armed violence for each grid cell quarter.

Popular unrest in the form of public expressions of dissatisfaction and grievances like protests and riots can be an indication of existing tensions in society and may escalate into violent conflict in the future. This indicator measures the intensity of popular unrest based on the number of instances of unrest observed, taking into account the liberty to do so within a given country.

Similar to armed violence, unrest can also ignite further unrest in other locations and impact surrounding regions. Surrounding popular unrest measures the average level of unrest in close geographic proximity to a grid cell based on the number of unrest events and the ease of protesting.

Persistence of popular unrest estimates the enduring level of popular unrest. Similar to armed violence, unrest can persist for longer time periods or break out again after shorter periods of no or low activity if the underlying problems have not been addressed. The indicator estimates the persistent level of unrest based on the recent history of unrest in the geographic neighborhood for each grid cell quarter

Conflict actors reflects the complexity of a conflict landscape in a country. The more actors are involved in a conflict context and the more active they are, the harder it is to solve it, increasing long-term risk. This indicator is built based on the number of organized actors within a country combined with the country-wide severity of conflict, relative to population size.

Country affectedness measures the severity of the conflict situation in a country as a whole. The more widespread and the more intense the level of violence, the higher the overall indirect risks within a country, e.g. through economic or health system deterioration. The indicator combines the share of the country affected with the overall lethality relative to a country's population.

Economic dependence on agriculture measures the importance of agriculture for a country’s economy and as a source of income for the population. Higher dependency increases vulnerability, as agriculture is sensitive to climate and conflict hazards. This indicator combines data on agricultural employment and the sector’s contribution to GDP.

Economic deprivation reflects local economic capacity on a reversed scale. Lower economic capacity increases vulnerability to climate and conflict hazards by reducing the ability to invest in adaptation, provide disaster relief, and absorb shocks. This indicator is measured as a fraction of GDP for each grid cell on a reversed scale.

Educational vulnerability indicates how deficiencies in education contribute to susceptibility to adverse outcomes. Higher education levels improve the ability to prepare for and cope with hazards, while lower education levels increase vulnerability. This indicator measures education levels as the average years of schooling, presented on a reversed scale.

Health vulnerability reflects the susceptibility to adverse outcomes stemming from poor health and healthcare systems. Health status affects the capacity to cope with or adapt to hazards, with poor health being a key driver of vulnerability. The health indicator is based on life expectancy at birth, presented on a reversed scale.

Economic inequality captures the degree to which societies’ resources are unevenly distributed. High levels of inequality often reflect reduced capacities of those disadvantaged to adapt to climate change, react to climate hazards, and protect themselves during conflicts. Inequality is captured by income distributions within countries.

The hunger indicator captures the prevalence of undernourishment, i.e., insufficient consumption of food to maintain a normal active and healthy life. Hunger weakens people's ability to withstand and recover from shocks, rendering them less resilient compared to well-nourished populations. This indicator is based on country data on undernourishment.

Gender inequality refers to unequal treatment of people based on gender. Discriminatory formal and informal norms, rules and values might render women more vulnerable to hazards, for example, by restricting their movement and access to resources. This indicator combines various gender inequality indicators, taking into account a range of political and socio-economic inequalities.

The institutional vulnerability indicator measures institutional reliability and rule of law, as markers of good governance, on a reversed scale. Weak institutions increase vulnerability by leading to inefficient resource distribution, reducing coping and adaptation capacity, and potentially fueling grievances and conflict. This indicator is based on external indices of corruption and rule of law.

Political system vulnerability measures individual rights and liberties of citizens within, and the fairness and inclusiveness of a political system on a reversed scale. Fewer liberties and less inclusive systems increase vulnerability, as policy decisions are less likely to address all societal groups’ opinions and needs. This indicator combines measures of electoral democracy, political rights and civil liberties at the country level.

Ethnic marginalization measures the extent to which specific ethnic groups are excluded from political power. Such exclusion can cause discrimination and inequality in resources, services, and opportunities, increasing the excluded groups’ vulnerability. This indicator combines the number of locally relevant politically excluded groups with the level of protection of minority rights in a country.

This indicator captures persons within a society forcibly uprooted from their homes and in need of assistance. Often marginally integrated into society with inadequate public support, displaced populations live in precarious conditions with limited access to services, leaving them more vulnerable than hosts. This indicator captures the share of forcibly displaced population within a country.

This indicator captures population-related pressure on public and natural resources. Rapid population growth drives vulnerability as it strains public resources, increases competition over jobs and resources and intensifies environmental pressure. The indicator is measured via the relative change in population over time, counting all residents regardless of their legal status or citizenship.

This indicator highlights the pressure on public resources linked to non-working-age individuals (dependents). Dependents (children and elderly), are more vulnerable to hazards due to their unique characteristics; a high age dependency ratio also increases economic pressure on the workforce and public resources. This indicator measures dependents as a share of the working age population.

This indicator captures the degradation of soil ecosystems and services they provide. Soil degradation drives vulnerability by, e.g., decreasing water quality and soil productivity and reducing vegetative cover, worsening the impacts of hazards and rendering those directly dependent on ecosystems particularly vulnerable. This indicator measures the extent of soil degradation in a given grid cell.

Deforestation approximates the degradation of forest ecosystems and the services they provide. Deforestation drives vulnerability by, e.g., removing natural buffers such as tree cover making areas more prone to hazards, and diminishing the availability of resources for communities that directly depend on forests. The deforestation indicator tracks tree cover loss between 2000 and 2022.

This indicator captures the degradation of biodiversity and related services due to human pressure. Healthy, diverse ecosystems provide essential services that reduce vulnerability and enhance resilience to hazards, including improved adaptive capacity, clean water provision, and sustainable food production. This indicator captures biodiversity loss compared to natural conditions.

Water stress occurs when all or most of the available renewable freshwater is being used, creating water shortages. Water stress, typically driven by insufficient availability, unsustainable use, and inadequate infrastructure, amplifies impacts of climate hazards and exacerbates vulnerability where water is already scarce. This indicator measures the extent of water stress in a given grid cell.

This indicator captures the direct dependence of the agricultural sector on rainfall. Irrigation can be an important form of adaptation, reducing agricultural vulnerability to hazards such as droughts and changing rainfall patterns. This indicator measures the share of rainfed crop land within a grid cell.