Pacific Catastrophe Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative

Better Information for Smarter Investments

Context

Since 1950 disasters have affected ~9.2 million people in the Pacific region, caused 9,811 reported deaths and cost the Pacific Island Countries around USD3.2 billion (in nominal terms) in associated damage costs (EM-DAT, 2010)

Outputs

Pacific disaster risk assessment
Probabilistic assessment of major perils, Pacific Risk Information System, Risk based framework to direct resources of countries and development partners.

Pacific disaster risk financing solutions
Fiscal risk exposure, Financial disaster risk management, Regional risk pooling.

Goals

The Pacific Catastrophe Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative (PCRAFI) aims to provide the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) with disaster risk modeling and assessment tools.

It also aims to engage in a dialogue with the PICs on integrated financial solutions for the reduction of their financial vulnerability to natural disasters and to climate change. The initiative is part of the broader agenda on disaster risk management and climate change adaptation in the Pacific region.

Additionally, the Pacific Disaster Risk Assessment Project provides 15 countries with disaster risk assessment tools to help them better understand, model, and assess their exposure to natural disasters

Models

PCRAFI assembled, processed, developed, and organized the largest collection of geo-referenced data for hazard modeling in the region:

  • Satellite imagery
  • Topographic maps
  • Bathymetry maps
  • Surface geology maps
  • Surface soil maps
  • Land Cover/Land Use maps
  • Geodetic and fault data
  • Historical catalogs of tropical cyclones and earthquakes
PCRAFI produced detailed probabilistic hazard models for all 15 countries, such as Tropical Cyclones with Winds, Storm Surge, Rain Earthquake with Ground-shaking, and Tsunami.

Partners

The Pacific Risk Information System (PacRIS) was compiled by SOPAC under the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative (PCRAFI). PacRIS is a geographic Information (GIS) platform designed to provide the Pacific Island Countries, development partners and the private sector with the data and tools needed to develop disaster risk reduction applications.

The SPC Applied GeoScience and Technology Division (SOPAC) encourages member countries, partners and the private sector to use the PacRIS platform to develop disaster risk reduction solutions. These could include integrated financial, technical and planning solutions to reduce the vulnerability of Pacific Island Countries to natural disasters and climate change. PCRAFI is supporting the first of set applications using the PacRIS platform. These include the development of a risk financing and insurance pool for the Pacific, disaster response planning applications for selected locations, and a post disaster assessment tool.

PCRAFI is a joint initiative of SOPAC/SPC, World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank with the financial support of the Government of Japan and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), and technical support from AIR Worldwide, NZ GNS Science, Geoscience Australia, Pacific Disaster Center (PDC), OpenGeo and GFDRR Labs.