Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

Disaster risk: Conditions, trends and impacts
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and flood-risk areas in Central Europe. In Africa, sea-level
rise has been identified as a cause of heritage loss in coastal
Ghana, where Fort Peasantine in the Volta region has been
lost. In Mali, drought has caused the abandonment of areas
with significant architectural heritage, placing these buildings
at risk from lack of maintenance. 48 The ancient citadel
and surrounding cultural landscape of the Iranian city of
Bam, where 26,000 people lost their lives in the earthquake
of December 2003, was simultaneously inscribed on
UNESCO’s World Heritage List and on the List of World
Heritage in Danger in 2004. World Heritage List status has
enabled UNESCO to lead international efforts to salvage the
cultural heritage of this devastated city. The potential for
protecting global architectural heritage through the inclusion
of World Heritage sites in urban disaster management
plans has also been realized – for example, in Central Quito
(Peru) and Havana (Cuba). 49
When places of cultural importance are damaged or
destroyed by disaster, the impacts go far beyond economic
value. 50 Cultural heritage can provide disaster-affected
communities with a much needed sense of continuity and
identity during reconstruction, as well as a future resource
for economic development. Cultural heritage is particularly
at risk in the period following a disaster, when the urgency
to address the basic needs of the population, combined with
the interests of developers and entrepreneurs, often leads to
emergency response activities and planning and rehabilitation
schemes for recovery that are insensitive to the cultural
heritage of the affected areas or the social traditions of their
inhabitants. With this in mind, many have called for cultural
heritage to be integrated within the general framework of
development and planning, as well as within existing disaster
management policies and mechanisms. 51
URBAN PROCESSES
GENERATING DISASTER
RISK
This section presents an examination of the root causes of
vulnerability in cities exposed to natural and human-made
disaster risk. First, the impact of patterns of growth of mega
and large cities and of the many intermediate and smaller
human settlements on disaster risk is reviewed. Second, the
ways in which urban processes generate risk through modifying
the physical environment and through the extent and
impact of poverty in urban slums is examined. Third, the role
of urban management and, in particular, of building construction,
urban planning and the influence of international action
on urban development is reviewed. These topics are returned
to in Chapters 8 and 11, where experience of, and future
potential for, disaster risk reduction is reviewed.
Growth and diversity of urban areas
Rapid urban growth, coupled with geomorphology, hydrology,
politics, demography and economics, can create and
exacerbate landscapes of disaster risk in a variety of ways
(see Box 7.8). <strong>Global</strong> statistics on urban growth are as
Box 7.7 Flood hazard threat to cultural heritage in
Genoa, Italy
The city of Genoa is located in the Liguria region, in northwest Italy, where earthquakes,
landslides and floods represent the major natural hazards being historically experienced. These
natural hazards pose a serious threat to the cultural heritage of Genoa, which hosts one of the
largest medieval centres in Europe, with about 150 noble palaces and many valuable architectonic
evidences. The historic city centre is particularly subject to floods that are produced by
the many streams crossing the area and partially conveyed by hydraulic structures built during
the last two centuries. Failures in the artificial drainage system are, therefore, the main reason of
flooding for the ancient neighbourhoods of the town.
The vulnerability of local monumental heritage against flooded waters was first brought
to attention following the 1970 flooding, which caused 19 casualties, 500 homeless and losses of
about US$60 million in the productive sector.
An extensive survey of the available records of flooding episodes during the last 100
years was completed in order to derive a map of historically flooded areas. The study
concludes that the vulnerability to flooding of cultural monuments can hardly be addressed at
the scale of a single monument or art piece. Thus, projects involving the whole area of the
historic centre are recommended. Results from the study also illustrate that the problem is
mainly of a hydrologic/hydraulic nature; therefore, hydraulic solutions must be at the base of the
intervention.
Source: Lanza, 2003
impressive as those on disaster loss. 52 UN-Habitat’s State of
the World’s Cities 2006/2007 shows that during 2000 to
2015, 65 million new urban dwellers will be added annually,
93 per cent of these in developing countries. Asia and Africa
are the most rapidly urbanizing regions. In 2005, urban
populations were 39.9 per cent in Asia and 39.7 per cent in
Africa, increasing to 54.5 per cent and 53.5 per cent, respectively,
in 2030. 53 By this time, over 80 per cent of Latin
America’s population will be urban based.
Urban settlements are becoming larger and more
numerous through a combination of natural population
growth and in-migration. Political stability and economic
opportunity can lead to small rural settlements expanding
into towns, as is happening in Central America, and taking
on new social and environmental challenges and opportunities
in which urban managers might not be experienced. At a
larger scale, rapid expansion of urban corridors, such as that
along China’s seaboard, can reconfigure risk profiles at the
regional level.
For cities, there is a constant pressure to keep pace
with, if not lead, change in regional and global economic
development. This, in turn, can be a force contributing to
uncontrollable urban expansion and the generation of more
vulnerability to disasters. Mumbai, for instance, shifted its
industrial base from import substituting to export orientation
in response to changes in the global political economy.
This led to industrial relocation from the central city to
highways extending beyond the city limits, catalysing
massive population growth in the urban periphery. Some
settlements reportedly grew to six times their original
population, outstripping the capacity of urban planning and
infrastructure provision. 54
Foreign investment can bring new prosperity to a city
and its residents and be a resource for risk management.
However, competing for foreign capital investment can also
Rapid urban growth
… can create and
exacerbate
landscapes of risk in
a variety of ways