The people of Nepal today are exposed to
perennial local disaster events and profound vulnerability to
disaster. The combined efforts of government, donors, UN
agencies, NGOs, and Nepalese communities are needed to
avert the impacts of disaster events. Much more can be done
immediately to reduce the impacts by reviewing the scope and
distribution of past disaster events. This article provides an
overview of Nepal’s disaster vulnerability through an analysis
of the record of disaster events that occurred from 1900 to
2005. The data were generated from historical archives and
divided into incidents at the district, subnational, and national
levels. Statistical and Geographical Information System (GIS)
analyses were carried out to generate district level disaster
vulnerability maps. It is concluded that small-scale, local disasters
have a greater cumulative impact in terms of casualties
than large-scale, national disasters.