Efficiently reducing natural hazard risks requires a thorough understanding of the costs of natural hazards. Current methods to assess these costs employ a variety of terminologies and approaches for different types of natural hazards and different impacted sectors. This may impede efforts to ascertain comprehensive and comparable cost figures. In order to strengthen the role of cost assessments in the development of integrated natural hazard management, a review of existing cost assessment approaches was undertaken. This review considers droughts, floods, coastal and Alpine hazards, and examines different cost types, namely direct tangible damages, losses due to business interruption, indirect damages, intangible effects, and the costs of risk mitigation. This paper provides an overview of the state-of-the-art cost assessment approaches and discusses key knowledge gaps. It shows that the application of cost assessments in practice is often incomplete and biased, as direct costs receive a relatively large amount of attention, while intangible and indirect effects are rarely considered. Furthermore, all parts of cost assessment entail considerable uncertainties due to insufficient or highly aggregated data sources, along with a lack of knowledge about the processes leading to damage and thus the appropriate models required. Recommendations are provided on how to reduce or handle these uncertainties by improving data sources and cost assessment methods. Further recommendations address how risk dynamics due to climate and socio-economic change can be better considered, how costs are distributed and risks transferred, and in what ways cost assessment can function as part of decision support.

Hydrometeorological events are highly costly and have strong impacts on the human‐environment system. Effective response requires effective risk management concepts and strategies at individual and watershed level to increase community resilience. Focusing on flood risk and the information associated with it, individual risk behavior in the shape of implementing property‐level flood risk adaptation (PLFRA) measures is often overlooked. For this research, a comprehensive overview of possible PLFRA measures for homeowners in flood risk areas was made, as well as the possible costs and technical feasibility for new and existing buildings. To complement this, insights into risk mitigation behavior are essential due to the ongoing shift to risk‐based and individualized flood risk management, which require a contribution from flood‐prone households to risk reduction. Results show that PLFRA measures differentiate in their effectiveness, cost‐efficiency and technical feasibility, and full protection can never be guaranteed. Considering risk mitigation behavior, literature generally distinguishes between situational factors (such as communication and economic subsidies) and personal factors (such as personal and psychological components influencing individual behavior).This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Planning Water Science of Water > Water Extremes

The issue of cochlear implantation in deaf children with associated disabilities is an emerging subject. Currently, there is no consensus on whether to implant children with multiple impairments; moreover, it may be difficult to evaluate these children with standard tests pre- or post-implantation. In addition, these children often have poor speech perception and language skills, making assessment more difficult. Despite these factors, these children often receive important benefits in daily life, with an overall improvement in quality of life. In the present study, post-implant outcomes of 23 profoundly deaf children with neuropsychiatric disorders were analysed, using objective measures of speech perception, and a questionnaire administered to the parents, aimed at evaluating the benefits in daily life after implantation. The results were quite variable, but overall positive, in terms of speech perception, communication abilities, and improvement in quality of life. The findings add an additional piece of evidence to support the effectiveness of cochlear implantation in these special cases.