Forest cover, socioeconomics, and reported flood frequency in developing countries

dc.contributor.author	Ferreira, S	en
dc.contributor.author	Ghimire, R	en
dc.date.accessioned	2014-06-06T06:51:49Z
dc.date.available	2014-06-06T06:51:49Z
dc.date.issued	2012	en
dc.identifier.issn	00431397	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2011WR011701	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://62.217.125.90/xmlui/handle/123456789/5714
dc.subject.other	Emergency management	en
dc.subject.other	Flood frequency	en
dc.subject.other	Flood plains	en
dc.subject.other	Forest cover	en
dc.subject.other	Human impact	en
dc.subject.other	Land-use change	en
dc.subject.other	Natural forests	en
dc.subject.other	Sample selection	en
dc.subject.other	Socio-economics	en
dc.subject.other	Socioeconomic characteristics	en
dc.subject.other	Urban population	en
dc.subject.other	Deforestation	en
dc.subject.other	Developing countries	en
dc.subject.other	Economic and social effects	en
dc.subject.other	Population statistics	en
dc.subject.other	Risk management	en
dc.subject.other	Urban growth	en
dc.subject.other	Floods	en
dc.subject.other	anthropogenic effect	en
dc.subject.other	data assimilation	en
dc.subject.other	deforestation	en
dc.subject.other	developing world	en
dc.subject.other	floodplain	en
dc.subject.other	forest management	en
dc.subject.other	frequency analysis	en
dc.subject.other	heterogeneity	en
dc.subject.other	nature-society relations	en
dc.subject.other	socioeconomic status	en
dc.subject.other	urban growth	en
dc.subject.other	urban population	en
dc.subject.other	vegetation cover	en
dc.subject.other	Biological Populations	en
dc.subject.other	Cities	en
dc.subject.other	Deforestation	en
dc.subject.other	Developing Countries	en
dc.subject.other	Economic Analysis	en
dc.subject.other	Floods	en
dc.subject.other	Forest Management	en
dc.subject.other	Risk Management	en
dc.subject.other	Statistics	en
dc.title	Forest cover, socioeconomics, and reported flood frequency in developing countries	en
heal.type	journalArticle	en
heal.identifier.primary	10.1029/2011WR011701	en
heal.identifier.secondary	W08529	en
heal.publicationDate	2012	en
heal.abstract	In this paper, we analyze the determinants of the number of large floods reported since 1990. Using the same sample of countries as Bradshaw et al. (2007), and, like them, omitting socioeconomic characteristics from the analysis, we found that a reduction in natural forest cover is associated with an increase in the reported count of large floods. This result does not hold in any of three new analyses we perform. First, we expand the sample to include all the developing countries and all countries for which data were available but were omitted in their study. Second, and more importantly, since forest management is just one possible channel through which humans can influence reported flood frequency, we account for other important human-flood interactions. People are typically responsible for deforestation, but they are also responsible for other land use changes (e.g., urbanization), for floodplain and flood emergency management, and for reporting the floods. Thus, in our analysis we account for population, urban population growth, income, and corruption. Third, we exploit the panel nature of the data to control for unobserved country and time heterogeneity. We conclude that not only is the link between forest cover and reported flood frequency at the country level not robust, it also seems to be driven by sample selection and omitted variable bias. The human impact on the reported frequency of large floods at the country level is not through deforestation. © 2012. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.	en
heal.journalName	Water Resources Research	en
dc.identifier.issue	8	en
dc.identifier.volume	48	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1029/2011WR011701	en