chapter 4 - DRK

Strictly under embargo until Wednesday 22 September at 00:01 GMT (02:01 Geneva time)16CHAPTER 1together and made of flammable materials. Or the absence of drainage infrastructuremay turn heavy rainfall into a disastrous flood.The links between urban poverty and disaster risk are likely to be increased by climatechange. Tens of millions of urban dwellers face, or will soon face, life-threatening risksfrom the increased intensity of storms, flooding and heatwaves that climate change isbringing, with associated threats to their livelihoods, their asset bases (including housing),environmental quality and future prosperity. Here, it is largely those people andnations that have contributed least to global warming which face the greatest risks.Climate change is driven by greenhouse gas emissions which have brought benefits toaffluent individuals and societies yet most of the burdens fall on low-income (rural andurban) individuals and societies. Without global agreements that succeed in reducinggreenhouse gas emissions dramatically in the next few decades, the number and scaleof extreme weather events, coastal flooding and serious constraints on agriculture andwater supplies will increase and much of this will be in urban and rural areas that lackthe capacity to adapt. However, good practice in urban development and governmentcan also contribute much to disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. Butto focus only on the current and likely impact of climate change is to miss a very largepreventable disaster burden that has long been present in urban areas and that remainsindependent of climate change.Urbanization and disaster riskBeing vulnerable should not of itself generate disaster risk. So why is it that, in mostnations and urban centres, deaths, injuries and loss of homes from disasters are greateramong vulnerable groups? If risks are removed – for instance, the installation of decentdrains that cope with heavy rainfall – vulnerability to those risks is no longer a problem.Vulnerability is not the same as lack of income but lack of income may also mean lackof access to safe housing with good provision for water and sanitation, healthcare, educationand capacity to recover. And this, of course, is what increases risks for vulnerablegroups. In cities where a high proportion of the population lives in poverty, under-5mortality rates can be 15 to 20 times what they should be. Again, it has to be stressed thatvulnerable groups are not at risk if the hazards to which they are vulnerable are removed.Women are often the mainstays of community organization and collective action reducingdisaster risk, and the young can be resilient to disasters with proper support.In high-income nations, the concentration of people, buildings, motor vehicles andindustries (and their wastes) in cities is not generally associated with higher disasterrisks because this same concentration also means many economies of scale and proximityfor the comprehensive web of infrastructure and services that reduce disaster risksand disaster impacts. Urban populations in these nations take it for granted that theywill be protected from disasters, including extreme weather, floods, fires and technologicalaccidents.