ECONOMIC IMPACT OF NATURAL DISASTERS ON REGIONAL RECOVERY

Abstract

Natural calamities have increasingly become a very common event and a source of serious destruction, thus causing huge economic disruptions that are hard to measure and that will take a longer time than the physical destruction to be fully felt. This research investigates the issue of how varied natural calamities differ in their impact on the pattern of economic recovery in the region, depending on the geographical place where such changes are happening. The research team has access to the economic data for the years 2014 to 2024 and the data can include places that have been affected by earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and droughts, thus mapping the recovery paths, looking at impacts on different sectors, and finding out the factors that contribute to the resilience. They have applied a mixed-methods strategy that involves combining secondary economic indicators with primary survey data collected from around 280 businesses and 320 households in the impacted areas. The research results indicated that there are large differences in recovery periods caused by the type of disaster, the regional economic structure, and the capacity of institutions. The longest recovery periods are observed in case of earthquakes, which on average last 6 to 8 years, while the recovery in regions where floods occurred is fast but partial, taking place within 3 to 4 years. The researchers have pointed out the factors such as insurance penetration, infrastructure quality, government response effectiveness, and pre-disaster economic diversity, and have classified them as determinants of recovery speed and completeness. Among the factors, insurance penetration, infrastructure quality, government response effectiveness, and pre-disaster economic diversity are identified by the researchers as the main drivers of recovery speed and completeness of the affected region. Thus, these results are beneficial for disaster preparedness planning, as well as for the development of economic resilience strategies.

Keywords: Natural disasters, economic recovery, regional resilience, disaster economics, business continuity, infrastructure damage, economic vulnerability