Construction of a national natural hazard interaction framework: The case of Sweden

Abstract

Summary: Recent multiple natural hazards and compound climate events studies have identified a range of interaction types and examined natural hazard interactions in various locations. Yet, there are calls for examining relevant multiple natural hazards in still unstudied national contexts as Sweden. Moreover, multi-hazard concepts rarely consider climate change effects, despite the call of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to adopt multi-hazard approaches and the growing recognition that compound events should be considered “normal”. Using a systematic literature study, the paper presents a national natural hazard interaction framework for Sweden identifying 39 cascading, 56 disposition alteration, 3 additional hazard potential, and 17 coincident triggering interactions between 20 natural hazards. Reviewed gray literature, an expert workshop, and reviewed climate research suggest increases of multiple natural hazards with heat wave and heavy rain as triggering or driving events and with hydrological hazards, for instance, fluvial floods, landslides, and debris flows, as the main consequences.

Keywords

• Earth sciences
• Climatology
• Human Geography