World Disasters Report: Urban risk
The 2010 edition of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) World Disasters Report focused on urban risk. Produced shortly after two large ‘urban’ disasters; an earthquake in Chile (death toll in hundreds) and in Haiti (death toll in hundreds of thousands), the report is built on the premise that the urban context presents both problems and opportunities for disaster risk reduction and humanitarian assistance.
It provides a comprehensive review of urban risk that includes discussion on urbanisation and disaster risk, urban myths, disaster impacts in urban and rural areas, housing issues, and strengthening and supporting local action.
Following a review of urban disaster trends, the report describes some of the challenges and different approaches used to identify ‘urban disasters’ and their impact. One of these approaches is the DesInventar1, a conceptual and methodological tool for the generation of National Disaster Inventories and the construction of databases of damage, losses and in general the effects of disasters. The report mentions the potential of the DesInventar database, to achieve a more sophisticated understanding risk at urban district level, if it were more widely adopted.
Topics covered in subsequent chapters include:
- Risks and vulnerability in urban contexts
- Experiences with community-driven and led responses to disasters and disaster risk reduction
- The need for ‘flexible’ money for affected house holds and communities
- Urban violence, risk factors and strategies to address it
- Urban risks to health, with particular consideration of children, pandemic disease, nutrition and diet, mental health
- Climate change effects on patterns of urban risk and reducing effects
- Financing, urban governance, disaster risk reduction and urban development
The full report is available at: http://www.ifrc.org/en/publications-and-reports/world-disasters-report/wdr2010/
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Reference this page
World Disasters Report: Urban risk. Field Exchange 46: Special focus on urban food security & nutrition, September 2013. p45. www.ennonline.net/fex/46/world
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