Published works

When natural hazard managers need to make decisions about the allocation of resources, there is often information missing that cannot be rapidly obtained. In many cases, these decisions have to be made without waiting for the information to become available. But how can natural hazard managers know that their chosen allocation of resources generates good value for money when there is data missing? There are economic tools available that can support decision making in such cases. We explain how economic analyses cope with missing data and uncertainty. Through case studies, we illustrate how economic tools are used to rank the importance of different pieces of information and to find thresholds where the optimal decision changes. We also demonstrate how these tools can fill-in the gaps when there is little knowledge about a topic, for example, how to explicitly represent intangible values in decision making. The ability of economic tools to manage missing data and uncertainty can provide a wealth of information to natural hazard managers that can help them make better decisions.