14 DAY TRIAL // Mapping firm Maplecroft published the Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CCVI), a list of the cities which would suffer the most after natural calamities generated by climate change and rising sea levels.
The rank revealed that Calcutta is the city considered to be most threatened by an emerging potential disaster.
Population concentration, the level of development, the amount of natural resources a country might posses, agricultural dependency and potential conflict represent the main factors taken into consideration by experts in order to draw such a conclusion.
While measuring the impact of climate change on a national scale, the CCVI rank allows scientists to name the first 30 countries which are considered to be at “extreme risk”. Among these one can name: Haiti, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Madagascar, Cambodia, Mozambique, DR Congo, Malawi and the Philippines.
The benefits of this study are much more visible at a subnational level, taking into consideration that small regions from a certain country may be in great danger, without necessarily putting at risk the entire country's population.
While focusing on smaller regions, the project uses interactive maps, that are able to detect and study sensitivity to a damaging catastrophy down to 25km² in each corner of the planet.