Facing not-so-natural disasters

Climatology is one of the most advanced scientific areas in recent decades. The confluence of factors related to scientific and technological evolution can explain it. Satellite technology has allowed a remarkable increase in data availability and accuracy. Besides, computer science has made possible the evolution of increasingly complex, consistent and capable of treating large databases models, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The results have been more reliable day after day, permitting scenarios’ reproduction and discovering trends for more informed decision making. Proof of this advance is a recent article written by Tellman et al., (2021). The manuscript presents available data from flooded areas between 2000-2018 (with a resolution of 250m), identifying an affected area of 2.23 million km2 and 255 to 290 million people directly impacted by these events worldwide. It represents an increase of 58 to 86 million people between 2000 and 2015, number ten times higher than estimated by other studies. The Global Flood Database1 created by these researchers should help identify, among several impacts, the most vulnerable areas and those with a greater need for adaptative measures, especially concerning climate change.