Introduction and Application of a New Comprehensive Assessment Index for Damage Caused by Tropical Cyclones

ABSTRACT Using principal component analysis, a new comprehensive assessment index for damage caused by tropical cyclones in mainland china is developed based on data from 1984 to 2008. It is a weighted average of four kinds of damage data: including the deaths and missing, affected crop area, destroyed houses, and rate of direct economic loss. The weighting coefficients are set by principal component analysis. Two indices are derived, which differ in the importance of the deaths and missing in severity assessment according to the sign of the second principal component of damage data. Trends in the damage caused by individual tropical cyclones and in the annual frequencies of the various levels of severity of damage caused by tropical cyclones are analyzed. No clear trend in damage from individual tropical cyclones is found. The annual frequency of tropical cyclones causing heavy and catastrophic damage shows a clear decrease from 1984 to 2008 with no trend in the total number of damaging tropical cyclones.