Macro-scale assessment and response to natural disasters

Increasing climate driven disasters affect countries causing severe damages and injuries. The assessment of vulnerability has been the object of several studies. Here we propose an indicator of vulnerability at a macro-scale level (i.e. by country) using a novel approach. This is founded on the value of committed aids from overseas donor-countries. The timeliness of the response of donors in terms of committed aids with respect to the effectively disbursed ones is considered in relation to the occurrence of natural disasters in each countries at different years starting from 1985. Moreover, the effectiveness of the response in recovery from such shocks is evaluated in relation to the main sources of livelihood, such as agriculture, forestry and fishery activities. Thus, changes in land cover are also considered in the analysis. In addition, the impact of climate change is taken out from the analysis in order to isolate human responsibilities in catastrophic events. This is done using t