Overview

• Researchers recorded 142 flood‑triggered disasters in the past year, making floods the second most frequent cause after storms with 147 events.
• Authors attribute rising exposure to climate change and human alterations of landscapes such as urbanization and land‑use change, which intensify heavy rainfall impacts.
• The WorldRiskIndex ranks the Philippines as most at risk, followed by India, Indonesia, Colombia, Mexico, Myanmar, Mozambique and Russia, with Germany placed 95th of 193 countries.
• The report cites the late‑October floods in Spain’s Valencia region, where more than 220 deaths were reported, as a recent high‑impact example.
• Recommended measures include stronger early‑warning systems, use of traditional knowledge, and restoring wetlands or mangroves, while the authors warn that data‑collection budget cuts in the UK, France and the US, including the dissolution of USAID, could weaken future assessments.