Challenges in humanitarian aid and disaster relief (HADR) missions and Operations and Technology requirements

International reinsurer Munich RE has projected that worldwide losses due to 2017’s string of natural disasters will reach $330 billion, with only $135 billion of those costs insured. Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria alone, which left behind $215 billion in damages, made 2017 the costliest hurricane season on record. This year’s global losses were almost twice the 10-year, inflation-adjusted average of $170 billion, and insured losses were nearly three times the annual average of $49 billion. U.S. disasters made up 50% of all losses versus its usual 32% share. The devastating wildfire season in California drove insured losses to around $8 billion. And at least five severe thunderstorms across the country, accompanied by tornadoes and hail, caused insured losses of more than $1 billion each

In Asia, heavy monsoon rains that lasted about four weeks longer than usual killed 2,700 people and caused $3.5 billion in total losses. The Terai lowlands in Nepal, home to almost half the Nepalese population, were most severely hit. In Europe, unusually low temperatures in April caused billions of dollars in damage to farmers, shrinking some harvests by 50 percent. The damage was especially costly because crops had already grown robustly in an otherwise warm spring.

In India Bihar floods affected 19 districts of North Bihar causing death of 514 people. Mumbai Flood refers to the flooding that occurred on August 29, 2017 following heavy rain on 29 August 2017 in Mumbai. Transport systems were unavailable through parts of the city as trains and roadways were shut. Power was cut-off from various parts of the city to prevent electrocution. Ockhi was the most intense tropical cyclone in the Arabian Sea since Cyclone Megh in 2015.  More than 245 fatalities were caused by Ockhi, including 218 in India and 27 in Sri Lanka and it left at least 551 people, mainly fishermen, missing.

On 29 September 2017, a stampede broke out at the Elphinstone station in Mumbai, India.  23 people were killed and 39 others were injured in the stampede. A large number of child deaths occurred at the state-run BRD Medical College hospital in Gorakhpur city of Uttar Pradesh, India. As of 2 September 2017, 1,317 children have died at the hospital.

The risk of disasters is accumulating rapidly, with climate change increasing the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events and urbanization exposing greater numbers of people to their impacts. Over the last decade, China, the United States, the Philippines, Indonesia and India constitute together the top 5 countries that are most frequently hit by natural disasters. Each year, natural disasters, compounded by climate change and conflict, cause more than $500 billion in losses.