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Natural hazard impacts in small island developing states: A review of current knowledge and future research needs

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Abstract

Small island developing states (or SIDS) are exposed to a large number of natural hazards and many characteristics of small island developing states make them particularly vulnerable to the impacts of natural hazards. In spite of this acknowledged vulnerability, there are relatively few studies which focus on the impacts of natural hazards in these countries. This paper presents a review of our current state of knowledge of impacts in small island developing states and highlights a number of research needs. Central to these is the need to integrate natural hazards research within a sustainable development context and the need to exploit existing procedures such as government coordinated disaster impact assessments to generate a detailed understanding of natural hazards impacts.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewer for their constructive comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Geography, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia

    Kirstie Méheux

  2. Risk Frontiers, Department of Physical Geography, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia

    Dale Dominey-Howes

  3. Department of Human Geography, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia

    Kate Lloyd

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  1. Kirstie Méheux
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  2. Dale Dominey-Howes
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  3. Kate Lloyd
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Correspondence to Kirstie Méheux.

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Méheux, K., Dominey-Howes, D. & Lloyd, K. Natural hazard impacts in small island developing states: A review of current knowledge and future research needs. Nat Hazards 40, 429–446 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-006-9001-5

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