Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

Policy responses to disaster risk
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• The multiple stakeholders with roles to play in shaping
risk. Stakeholders’ actions influence the degree to
which they, and others, are placed at risk. This can be
hard to pin down – for example, when such actions are
part of everyday development processes.
• The multiple phases that disaster cycles pass through.
Perceptions of risk and actions to build capacity and
resilience may look very different before and after disaster
and during periods of everyday development.
It is precisely in urban centres where these overlapping
aspects of risk are most challenging. Thus, urban risk assessment
methodologies and programmes need to be
multi-sectoral, multidisciplinary and sensitive to differentiated
risk, vulnerability and capacity. 22
Additional challenges of risk assessment include the
following:
• While innovations in information technology, including
the use of satellite imagery, offer great potential as
sources of data for assessments, access to this technology
is not equally distributed globally and even within
countries. Inequality in the distribution of human
resources, as well as hardware, and the ability to buy in
data from private sources comprise a challenge for
development.
• People are the true wealth of cities. However, many
measurements of urban risk, particularly those operating
at the urban scale, focus on built assets at risk. This
may be a reflection of the economic importance of
physical assets. It might also reflect the background of
scientists who have led the field of urban risk modelling
and assessment, an area dominated until recently by an
engineering focus and an interest in earthquake risk. It
also reflects the difficulty of measuring human vulnerability,
particularly at larger scales.
• The fast pace of change in the physical fabric and social
life of slums, and other low-income settlements, is a
challenge for risk assessment. Local and participatory
methodologies have partly been adopted in response to
this challenge as they are easier to manage and less
costly and therefore can be undertaken with greater
frequency. More problematic, still, is the difficulty of
including highly vulnerable people dispersed across the
city, such as the homeless and illegal immigrants, in
particular. This challenge is proving hard to overcome in
even wealthier countries and cities.
Perceptions of risk
Perceptions of risk play an important part in disaster risk
reduction. They influence the ways in which risk is
measured and the willingness of citizens and authorities to
undertake actions to manage risk. Planners and policymakers
often employ expert risk analysis to justify hazard
mitigation policies; yet, expert and lay risk assessments do
not always concur. This can undermine policy legitimization
and compliance.
Perceptions are shaped by a number of factors, including
the nature and availability of disaster-related information,
past experiences of disaster events, cultural values and the
socio-economic status of concerned individuals or households.
Perceptions influence the relative importance given to
natural or human-made hazards, compared to other competing
needs and opportunities. In turn, the importance
ascribed to disaster risks determines subsequent efforts to
avoid or limit the impacts of those hazards. For instance,
research in the US has found that hurricane risk perception
is a useful predictor of storm preparation, evacuation and
hazard adjustment undertaken by households. 23
The ability of a household or individual to act on
perceived risk is also constrained by their coping and
adaptive capacity and by urban governance institutions. Too
often, poverty and marginalization force the most vulnerable
to accept risk from natural and human-made hazards as a
trade-off for access to shelter and work. Risk assessments
can help policy-makers understand the multiple risks faced
by those in poverty by making perceptions more tangible.
Once individuals have experienced a disaster event,
they tend to have an elevated sense of future risk. 24 Without
support, this can lead to stress and panic. A number of
rumours and false alarms followed in the wake of the Indian
Ocean Tsunami. In one instance, a rumour caused 1000
people to flee from the beach area of Pangandaran
(Indonesia). 25
STRENGTHENING LOCAL
DISASTER RESILIENCE
Local disaster resilience refers to the capacity of local actors
to minimize the incidence and impacts of disasters, and to
undertake recovery and reconstruction activities once disasters
occur. In places where hazard and loss are tangible,
disaster risk reduction or reconstruction can be opportunities
for improving the solidarity, inclusiveness, human skills
and confidence of local groups and their leaders. Box 8.6
shows just how effective local capacity-building can be for
disaster risk reduction. This section reviews social, legislative
and economic pathways for building local resilience and
discusses the challenges therein.
Social pathways
Social capital offers a resource upon which to build
resilience to disaster shocks, even where economic
resources are limited and political systems are exclusionary.
Local stocks of social capital – norms and habits of behaviour
that support reciprocity and collective action – are resources
that can be used to build capacity in the face of multiple
development challenges, including disaster risk. This
provides a great opportunity for integrating disaster risk
reduction and development at the local level.
Building local networks of support and reciprocity can
increase self-reliance among households and neighbourhoods
and in this way enhance disaster resilience. An
example of the benefits to be gained by communities with
strong social ties comes from Catuche, Caracas, in
The pace of change
in the physical fabric
and social life of
slums…is a
challenge for risk
assessment
Perceptions of risk
…influence…the
willingness of
citizens and
authorities to
undertake actions
to manage risk
…the most
vulnerable…accept
risk from natural
and human-made
hazard as a trade-off
for access to shelter
and work