Natural hazard impacts database for Mozambique using information from 1926 to 2021: knowing the past to plan for a resilient future

Abstract This research focused on understanding the past of natural hazards in Mozambique (floods, droughts and coastal overtopping) in order to improve the planning of resilience actions, taking into account the context of climate change, which has aggravated the triggering factors of disasters and humanitarian crises in the country, especially in recent decades. To this end, the main focus was on building a database of local incidences of natural processes that frequently generate high intensity disasters throughout the country, based on newspaper data, official reports and reports from non-governmental organisations. In the database, physical processes, damage and losses were associated with a temporal and spatial dimension, and the district was taken as the minimum geographical unit. A risk sciences perspective was adopted, atempting to extract information regarding the physical forcers, intangible damages and institutional involvement, in order to provide support for a holistic risk management planning. The results were compared with DesInventar and EM-DAT databases for validation and analysis of the effect of using distinct degrees of inclusion criteria. The research showed that the natural processes that cause high human, material and environmental impacts in Mozambique are flooding, coastal gales associated with tropical storms and drought. Thus, the database created will serve as a starting point for contributing to public policies inherent in risk and disaster management.