chapter 4 - DRK

Strictly under embargo until Wednesday 22 September at 00:01 GMT (02:01 Geneva time)reinforce the view that disaster risk increases in badly governed cities and decreases inwell-governed cities. It would show that cities with rapid population growth and ensuingeconomic growth introduce measures to reduce disaster risk, while cities with slowpopulation growth or even population decline still have high disaster risk as they havefewer resources to invest in reducing disaster risk.Observed trends would also show that many city governments increase disaster risk asthey ignore the population living in informal settlements or as they bulldoze these settlements,destroying the homes, assets and livelihoods of tens of thousands of peoplebut providing no alternatives – either to those who are displaced or to low-incomegroups in general. Low-income groups do not want to live in poor-quality housing indangerous, crime-ridden settlements lacking infrastructure, law and order and otherservices. They do so because only in such areas can they find affordable accommodationwithin reach of income-earning opportunities.Box 1.1 Urban myths and misconceptions1. “Cities are parasitic, growing everywherewithout the economy to support them.” Ingeneral, the more urbanized a nation, thestronger and more productive its economy.The nations with the greatest economic successover the last few decades are generallythose that have urbanized most rapidly;most of those with the smallest increase intheir level of urbanization are those with theleast economic success.2. “Africa is the most rapidly urbanizing regionand it is urbanizing without economicgrowth.” Asia is the most rapidly urbanizingregion, driven by urbanization in itsmost successful economies. Africa’s rateof urbanization has slowed because manyAfrican nations have had little or no economicgrowth in recent years and are urbanizingslowly or may even have stoppedurbanizing.3. “Mega-cities are growing rapidly and willdominate the urban future.” There are relativelyfew mega-cities (17 in 2000, themost recent year for which census data areavailable), they concentrate less than 5 percent of the world’s population and manyhave more people moving out than in, assmaller cities within their nation attract morenew investment.4. “More than half the world’s population livesin cities.” More than half the world’s populationlives in urban centres, not cities, and alarge part of this is in small market towns orother urban centres too small to be considereda city.5. “The speed of urban change in poorer nationsis unprecedented with new cities mushroomingeverywhere.” Many high-incomenations had periods with faster increases intheir levels of urbanization than those takingplace in recent decades in most low- andmiddle-income nations. There are relativelyfew new large cities; most large cities inAsia, North Africa and Latin America (andEurope) have been important cities for centuries.Several of the world’s fastest-growinglarge cities over the last 100 years are inthe United States.World Disasters Report 2010 – Focus on urban risk19