Using data and statistics to explain investment effectiveness on flood protection

Losses and damages caused by natural disasters have negatively impacted poverty alleviation and human development and undermine the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, disaster issues were not included in MDG targets set up in 2000. A new development agenda, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), was approved in the UN General Assembly in September 2015. In the SDGs, disaster issues are included in many targets such as target 11.5. To appropriately set targets and prepare monitoring measures for disaster-related issues, quantitatively measurable indicators of impacts of disaster risk reduction on economic growth and poverty alleviation should be prepared. In addition, to promote disaster prevention measures, we need to convince policy makers that such measures are highly essential for a country’s development and are cost-effective. Although the cost-effectiveness of single disaster prevention projects has been studied, aggregate effectiveness of these projects at a national level has not been presented. This study proposes a simple method to explain the cost-effectiveness of flood protection investment in Japan post World War II by using national aggregate data.