Applying the natural disasters vulnerability evaluation model to the March 2011 north-east Japan earthquake and tsunami

• Published in: Disasters Vol. 38; no. s2; pp. s206 - s229
• Main Authors: Ruiz Estrada, Mario Arturo, Yap, Su Fei, Park, Donghyun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.07.2014
• Subjects: Accidents; Certainty; Disasters; Disasters - economics; earthquake; Earthquakes; Earthquakes - economics; economic desgrowth; Economic Development; Economic growth; Economic impact; Economic impact analysis; Economic indicators; Economic models; Economic policy; Economics; Evaluation; Geological hazards; GNP; Gross Domestic Product; Gross National Product; gross national product growth; Growth; Growth rates; Hazards; Humans; Impact analysis; Indexes; Japan; Models, Economic; natural disaster; Natural Disasters; NDVE model; Seismic activity; Seismic phenomena; Shrinkage; Studies; tsunami; Tsunamis; Tsunamis - economics; Uncertainty; Vulnerability; Japan; tsunami; natural disaster; Japan; earthquake; economic desgrowth; gross national product growth; NDVE model
• ISSN: 0361-3666; 1467-7717; 1467-7717
• DOI: 10.1111/disa.12069

Natural hazards have a potentially large impact on economic growth, but measuring their economic impact is subject to a great deal of uncertainty. The central objective of this paper is to demonstrate a model—the natural disasters vulnerability evaluation (NDVE) model—that can be used to evaluate the impact of natural hazards on gross national product growth. The model is based on five basic indicators—natural hazards growth rates (αi), the national natural hazards vulnerability rate (ΩT), the natural disaster devastation magnitude rate (Π), the economic desgrowth rate (i.e. shrinkage of the economy) (δ), and the NHV surface. In addition, we apply the NDVE model to the north‐east Japan earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 to evaluate its impact on the Japanese economy.