The "Disaster Gap" of the 20th Century and the Loss of Traditional Disaster Memory

Natural hazards and disasters were a frequent experience for many traditional communities of Western and Central Europe. Yet, in Switzerland, evidence of such events diminishes over the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the time series of severe disasters in Switzerland for the years between 1806 and 2007 shows that recorded incidences of loss of life and financial consequences were relatively infrequent between 1882 and 1976. It is argued that this "disaster gap" promoted the loss of what is here termed "disaster memory", that is the risk of natural hazards was increasingly disregarded. However, the recent increased frequency and severity of disasters, together with an awakening of environmental consciousness and the growing certainty of global warming, has led to the emergence of a novel, professional risk culture that takes advantage of the legacy of traditional accounts and records of historical disasters for the purposes of risk assessment.