Urbanization trends in the Himalaya are exposing more people to risk from compound hazards such as flooding, landslides and wildfires, a new study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment has found.
Urbanization trends in the Himalaya are exposing more people to risk from compound hazards such as flooding, landslides and wildfires, a new study published in the journal Science of the Total Environment has found.
The study by a global team of researchers led by Jack Rusk ’22 MEM/ MArch and published in the journal Science of the Total Environment found that only a small proportion of the Himalaya region is susceptible to these compounding threats from multiple hazards, yet almost half of the region’s population is concentrated in those high-risk areas.
These compound hazards, which are events where more than one hazard interact and cause multiplicatively destructive consequences, are increasing in likelihood from climate change, according to the latest assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The study, which was funded by NASA, shows that current patterns of urbanization in the Hindu Kush Himalaya are putting people in harm’s way.
Read more at Yale University
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