Socioeconomic Resilience in Sri Lanka : Natural Disaster Poverty and Wellbeing Impact Assessment
Traditional risk assessments use asset losses as the main metric to measure the severity of a disaster. This paper proposes an expanded risk assessment based on a framework that adds socioeconomic resilience and uses wellbeing losses as the main me...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/173611568643337991/Socioeconomic-Resilience-in-Sri-Lanka-Natural-Disaster-Poverty-and-Wellbeing-Impact-Assessment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32423 |
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okr-10986-324232022-09-20T00:13:19Z Socioeconomic Resilience in Sri Lanka : Natural Disaster Poverty and Wellbeing Impact Assessment Walsh, Brian Hallegatte, Stephane NATURAL HAZARDS NATURAL DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT RESILIENCE POVERTY RISK ASSESSMENT WELFARE SOCIAL PROTECTION COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS WELLBEING Traditional risk assessments use asset losses as the main metric to measure the severity of a disaster. This paper proposes an expanded risk assessment based on a framework that adds socioeconomic resilience and uses wellbeing losses as the main measure of disaster severity. Using an agent-based model that represents explicitly the recovery and reconstruction process at the household level, this risk assessment provides new insights into disaster risks in Sri Lanka. The analysis indicates that regular flooding events can move tens of thousands of Sri Lankans into transient poverty at once, hindering the country's recent progress on poverty eradication and shared prosperity. As metrics of disaster impacts, poverty incidence and well-being losses facilitate quantification of the benefits of interventions like rapid post-disaster support and adaptive social protection systems. Such investments efficiently reduce wellbeing losses by making exposed and vulnerable populations more resilient. Nationally and on average, the bottom income quintile suffers only 7 percent of the total asset losses but 32 percent of the total wellbeing losses. Average annual wellbeing losses due to fluvial flooding in Sri Lanka are estimated at US$119 million per year, more than double the asset losses of US$78 million. Asset losses are reported to be highly concentrated in Colombo district, and wellbeing losses are more widely distributed throughout the country. Finally, the paper applies the socioeconomic resilience framework to a cost-benefit analysis of prospective adaptive social protection systems, based on enrollment in Samurdhi, the main social support system in Sri Lanka. 2019-09-19T19:09:07Z 2019-09-19T19:09:07Z 2019-09 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/173611568643337991/Socioeconomic-Resilience-in-Sri-Lanka-Natural-Disaster-Poverty-and-Wellbeing-Impact-Assessment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32423 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9015 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper South Asia Sri Lanka |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
NATURAL HAZARDS NATURAL DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT RESILIENCE POVERTY RISK ASSESSMENT WELFARE SOCIAL PROTECTION COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS WELLBEING |
| spellingShingle |
NATURAL HAZARDS NATURAL DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT RESILIENCE POVERTY RISK ASSESSMENT WELFARE SOCIAL PROTECTION COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS WELLBEING Walsh, Brian Hallegatte, Stephane Socioeconomic Resilience in Sri Lanka : Natural Disaster Poverty and Wellbeing Impact Assessment |
| geographic_facet |
South Asia Sri Lanka |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9015 |
| description |
Traditional risk assessments use asset
losses as the main metric to measure the severity of a
disaster. This paper proposes an expanded risk assessment
based on a framework that adds socioeconomic resilience and
uses wellbeing losses as the main measure of disaster
severity. Using an agent-based model that represents
explicitly the recovery and reconstruction process at the
household level, this risk assessment provides new insights
into disaster risks in Sri Lanka. The analysis indicates
that regular flooding events can move tens of thousands of
Sri Lankans into transient poverty at once, hindering the
country's recent progress on poverty eradication and
shared prosperity. As metrics of disaster impacts, poverty
incidence and well-being losses facilitate quantification of
the benefits of interventions like rapid post-disaster
support and adaptive social protection systems. Such
investments efficiently reduce wellbeing losses by making
exposed and vulnerable populations more resilient.
Nationally and on average, the bottom income quintile
suffers only 7 percent of the total asset losses but 32
percent of the total wellbeing losses. Average annual
wellbeing losses due to fluvial flooding in Sri Lanka are
estimated at US$119 million per year, more than double the
asset losses of US$78 million. Asset losses are reported to
be highly concentrated in Colombo district, and wellbeing
losses are more widely distributed throughout the country.
Finally, the paper applies the socioeconomic resilience
framework to a cost-benefit analysis of prospective adaptive
social protection systems, based on enrollment in Samurdhi,
the main social support system in Sri Lanka. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Walsh, Brian Hallegatte, Stephane |
| author_facet |
Walsh, Brian Hallegatte, Stephane |
| author_sort |
Walsh, Brian |
| title |
Socioeconomic Resilience in Sri Lanka : Natural Disaster Poverty and Wellbeing Impact Assessment |
| title_short |
Socioeconomic Resilience in Sri Lanka : Natural Disaster Poverty and Wellbeing Impact Assessment |
| title_full |
Socioeconomic Resilience in Sri Lanka : Natural Disaster Poverty and Wellbeing Impact Assessment |
| title_fullStr |
Socioeconomic Resilience in Sri Lanka : Natural Disaster Poverty and Wellbeing Impact Assessment |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Socioeconomic Resilience in Sri Lanka : Natural Disaster Poverty and Wellbeing Impact Assessment |
| title_sort |
socioeconomic resilience in sri lanka : natural disaster poverty and wellbeing impact assessment |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2019 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/173611568643337991/Socioeconomic-Resilience-in-Sri-Lanka-Natural-Disaster-Poverty-and-Wellbeing-Impact-Assessment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32423 |
| _version_ |
1764476518557286400 |