World Disasters Report 2010: Focus on Urban Risk

This report provides suggestions on how high disaster risk within developing countries cities can be reduced. It also highlights how, in a globalised world, a deficiency on one side of the world can create problems for all. The author argues that climate change will increase the risks of urban disaster, in particular urban residents and authorities in unprepared cities will have to deal with increasing levels of uncertainty around the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. It is largely those people and nations that have contributed least to global warming which face the greatest risks.

It also notes that over one billion people today live in appalling housing conditions in urban areas and their numbers are growing by ten million annually. Many live in informal settlements where even the most rudimentary protective infrastructure is often lacking. Due to climate change these urban dwellers face life-threatening risks from the increased intensity of storms, flooding and heatwaves, which also create threats to their livelihoods, their asset bases, environmental quality and future prosperity. The author argues that such terrible housing and infrastructure, often considered illegal and constructed without planning and maps, creates critical complications for disaster response and can make reconstruction very difficult.   

One of the main findings highlighted in the report is that the availability of information on urban disasters is still quite poor. At present, it is not possible to understand the number of urban disasters, the extent of disaster impacts on urban areas or how trends in urban disasters differ between global regions. The profile of hazards that are studied under climate change are limited and do not include the full range that would encompass a disaster’s perspective.

The author concludes that successful development, disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change strategies are all intensely local with many links and complementarities between them. They need effective local institutions that are accountable to citizens including those living in informal settlements.

The following recommendations are set forth:

• Governments should improve the quality of housing for low-income groups
• Disaster response should centre on the needs and priorities of the survivors and others who are negatively impacted
• High-income nations should agree to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which are needed to avoid ‘dangerous climate change
• Good local land-use management supported by good local risk assessments is needed to transform urban plans into disaster reduction plans as unsafe sites are avoided or made safe.