Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

Over the last three decades, natural and human-made disasters
have claimed millions of lives and caused huge economic
losses globally. Cities, where half of humanity currently
resides and much of the world’s assets are concentrated, are
fast becoming the locus for much of this destruction and loss
from disasters. Rapid urbanization, coupled with global
environmental change, is turning an increasing number of
human settlements into potential hotspots for disaster risk.
The 2005 South Asian earthquake, in which 18,000 children
died when their schools collapsed, and the Indian Ocean
Tsunami in 2004 that wiped out many coastal settlements in
Sri Lanka, India and Indonesia, are testament to the risk that
has accumulated in towns and cities and that is released
when disaster strikes. Numerous other cases illustrate the
suffering and losses experienced by urban dwellers due to
natural and human-made disasters (see Box IV.1).
Part IV of this <strong>Global</strong> <strong>Report</strong> examines the consequences
of natural and human-made disasters for safety and
security in cities, and the policy options for preventing and
reducing damage caused by these events. Disasters are
defined as those events where human capacity to withstand
and cope with a natural or human-made hazard is
overwhelmed. The majority of the report focuses on large
disasters that register direct impacts at the community level
and above. However, the impacts of small-scale hazards,
where direct impacts are limited to the individual or household
levels, are illustrated through an examination of traffic
accidents that result in over 1 million deaths worldwide each
year, more than any large natural or human-made disaster
type.
As highlighted in this part of the report, cities are
particularly vulnerable to the effects of natural and humanmade
disasters due to a complex set of interrelated
processes, including a concentration of assets, wealth and
people; the location and rapid growth of major urban centres
in coastal locations; the modification of the urban built and
natural environment through human actions; the expansion
of settlements within cities into hazard-prone locations; and
the failure of urban authorities to regulate building standards
and land-use planning strategies. As cities grow, disaster risk
often increases through the rising complexity and interdependence
of urban infrastructure and services, greater
population density and concentration of resources. Yet,
urban growth need not necessarily result in increased disaster
risk.
Inequalities in the distribution of disaster risk and loss
in urban areas are evident at the global, national and city
levels: poorer citizens in cities of poorer countries are most
at risk. Disaster impacts are also varied, depending upon
what is considered to be at risk. In terms of absolute mortality
and economic loss as a proportion of gross domestic
product (GDP), regions dominated by low- and middleincome
countries record high losses. Indeed, Africa and Asia
have experienced the fastest rate of increase in the
incidence of natural and human-made disasters over the last
three decades. These are also among the world regions with
the highest rates of urban growth, indicating that risk will
increase in the future as populations grow. Absolute
economic loss from natural and human-made disasters is
highest in high-income regions such as North America and
Europe, although Asia also records high loss in this respect.
Indeed, high levels of economic development and political
stability help to shift the impact of disasters from human to
physical assets, as is evident in the case of Europe. This illustrates
that disaster risk reduction planning, investment and
management capacity are critical in shaping vulnerability in
human settlements.
Disaster loss is also differentiated at the city level. A
city’s vulnerability to disaster impacts is shaped by its levels
of economic development and disaster preparedness. The
structure of the urban economy determines which actors
bear the brunt of disasters, while its connectivity influences
the global spread of impacts from one economy to another.
At the individual level, disaster impacts vary according to
social differentiation, with women, children, the elderly and
the disabled being most vulnerable. The greatest vulnerability
to disaster is, however, experienced by the 1 billion
people forced to live in urban slums worldwide. People here
are excluded from living and working in places protected by
construction and land-use planning regulations and have the
least assets to cope with disaster shocks. But the speed of
urbanization can spread vulnerability to other social groups.
For example, where building codes are not followed because
of a lack of enforcement, disaster has claimed the lives of
those living in the formal housing sector.
The aggregate impact of small hazards and disasters
on urban dwellers can be considerable, as shown in this part
of the report. Traffic accidents are the best documented of
the small-scale hazards, killing over 1.2 million people
annually worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO)
calculates the economic costs of traffic accidents to be 1 per
cent of gross national product (GNP) in low-income
countries, 1.5 per cent in middle-income countries and 2 per
cent in high-income countries. Most deaths and injuries are