AI Insight
A study published through the National Bureau of Economic Research analyzed three decades of data on desert locust monitoring, one of the world's oldest and longest-running disaster early warning systems. The research found that surveillance programs designed to track and respond to desert locust activity can generate returns of up to 680 times the initial investment by limiting agricultural damage. The findings contribute quantitative evidence to the broader argument that early warning systems are cost-effective tools for mitigating natural disaster impacts.
Why it matters
The results provide a data-driven case for sustained investment in disaster monitoring infrastructure, with potential implications for policy decisions around early warning systems for other agricultural, environmental, and natural disaster threats globally.
A study of one of the world’s longest-running disaster warning systems—desert locust monitoring—finds surveillance limits damages and generates returns of up to 680 times the investment. The new study, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research as part of its working papers series, measures how valuable early warning systems could be in limiting the damage caused by natural disasters. Using three decades of data, it evaluates one of the earliest and longest-running disaster monitoring systems: monitoring for the desert locust, one of the world’s most destructive agricultural pests.