Facing climate change and improving emergency responses in Southern America by analysing urban cyclonic wind events

Climate change is modifying the spatiotemporal patterns of global precipitation events, temperatures,
\nand winds, therefore, after extreme events, improving emergency responses in urban areas
\nis key to saving its inhabitants. In Southern America, the number of extreme events is increasing.
\nThis is the case of Soledad, the municipality in Colombia where most of the catastrophic wind
\nphenomena take place. To date, no studies have been conducted to quantify the impacts and
\neffects of the urban cyclonic wind phenomena on society and the urban built environment. This
\nlack of information and dissemination means that the population is not informed of the magnitude
\nof the problem. This research aims to generate a risk map of atmospheric wind phenomena to
\nevaluate their impacts and establish spatial-temporal correlations based on meteorological data
\nfrom the last 20 years. Moreover, the online press has been used to identify the location of these
\nphenomena and their negative impacts over time. For each event, the following indicators have
\nbeen studied: (1) location of the atmospheric wind events; (2) occurrence rate; (3) impact of the
\nevents discriminated by fatalities, injuries, and affected houses. The results show that in 20 years,
\na total of 34 urban cyclonic wind events were reported. Those occurrences have impacted 60
\nneighbourhoods, leaving 7 deaths, 14,552 injured, and 5180 affected homes. These findings show
\nthe magnitude of the problem and the need to inform the population to improve emergency responses.
\nWe conclude that effective consideration of the resulting map will be crucial in the
\nprocesses of decision-making related to territorial planning in Soledad, but also in other Southern
\nAmerican cities.