chapter 4 - DRK

Strictly under embargo until Wednesday 22 September at 00:01 GMT (02:01 Geneva time)part of the Niigata region in Japan. Although it was the most costly disasterin the world for that year, only 11 deaths and 100 injuries were reported. Again,this is not always the case as, even in Japan, the complex web of causal relations meansthat the general rule does not always apply, as shown by the 1995 Kobe earthquakewhich claimed 6,400 lives and injured 15,000 people.14CHAPTER 1north-westernWith more than half the world’s population now living in urban areas, this editionof the World Disasters Report looks at where cities and smaller urban areas are centresof risk for disasters and where they are not. It will also consider why this is so – andthe extent to which disaster risk can be reduced or removed in urban areas and whatmeasures contribute to this. This will be discussed within the context of a world thatis urbanizing rapidly.Why focus on urban areas?This report’s focus on urban areas does not mean that urban and rural disasters shouldbe considered separately. Most disasters impact rural and urban areas. There are toomany links between both areas which are relevant to disasters – for instance, disastersin rural areas bring disruptions to urban centres to which they supply food, fuel, wateror other goods, while disasters in urban areas disrupt the suppliers of goods and servicesthat farmers and rural populations use.But urban areas need separate consideration because their very character – the concentrationof population, homes and other buildings, transport infrastructure andindustry – presents both problems and opportunities for disaster risk reduction andhumanitarian assistance. In low-income and most middle-income nations, there is alsomore ‘government’ in urban than in rural areas, as urban populations and enterprisesare subject to more rules and regulations, and state institutions are more likely to bepresent. Of course, such government activities should reduce disaster risk but in reality,as will be discussed later, they may often exacerbate it. There are also more market pressuresin urban areas, especially in large or successful cities where low-income groupsstruggle to find accommodation and health services they can afford and are at riskfrom price rises or falling incomes. Thus, there is a need for finance if households areto protect themselves.Urban populations also need some consideration simply for their scale:By 2010, there were 2.5 billion urban dwellers in low- and middle-incomenations; this is roughly the same as the world’s total population in 1950Africa is usually considered to be predominantly rural but its urban population isnow much larger than that of North AmericaMost of the world’s largest cities are in low- and middle-income nations; thisis unprecedented historically as most large cities have been in the wealthiestnations.