Congratulations!Vidur Mithal successfully presented his MSc thesis

12 February 2024

Photo: Vidur Mithal

Vidur's thesis titled "Exploring the effect of disaster intensity on the economic impacts of weather- and climate-induced natural disasters​" was supervised by Prof. Dr. Jana Sillmann (Universität Hamburg) and Prof. Dr. Jakob Zscheischler (UFZ Leipzig and TU Dresden).

In his thesis, Vidur analyses the relationship between the climatic drivers and economic impacts of weather- and climate-induced natural disasters such as heatwaves and cold waves. Using new datasets on disaster occurrence and economic productivity, extreme climate indices are shown to be effective measures of disaster intensity, and significant relationships are found between the magnitude of sectoral economic impacts and disaster intensity. Possible compounding effects in the economic impacts of disasters are also identified.

Vidur's future plans?
Vidur starts a PhD at the International Max Planck Research School on Earth System Modelling (IMPRS-ESM) organized jointly by the Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology and the University of Hamburg, where he will continue to study the impacts of climatic extremes, focussing on impacts on agriculture.