WPS8188 Policy Research Working Paper 8188 Public Disclosure Authorized Natural Disaster Damage Indices Based on Remotely Sensed Data Public Disclosure Authorized An Application to Indonesia Emmanuel Skoufias Eric Strobl Thomas Tveit Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Poverty and Equity Global Practice Group September 2017 Policy Research Working Paper 8188 Abstract Combining nightlight data as a proxy for economic activity the size of the annual fiscal transfers from the central gov- with remote sensing data typically used for natural hazard ernment to the subnational governments. Ex post, or after modeling, this paper constructs novel damage indices at the the incidence of a natural disaster, damage indices are useful district level for Indonesia, for different disaster events such for quickly assessing and estimating the damages caused as floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and the 2004 and are especially useful for central and local governments, Christmas Tsunami. Ex ante, prior to the incidence of a disas- emergency services, and aid workers so that they can respond ter, district-level damage indices could be used to determine efficiently and deploy resources where they are most needed. This paper is a product of the Poverty and Equity Global Practice Group. It is part of a larger effort by the World Bank to provide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around the world. Policy Research Working Papers are also posted on the Web at http://econ.worldbank.org. The authors may be contacted at
[email protected]. The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues.