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Over the last three decades, natural and human-made disastershave claimed millions of lives and caused huge economiclosses globally. Cities, where half of humanity currentlyresides and much of the world’s assets are concentrated, arefast becoming the locus for much of this destruction and lossfrom disasters. Rapid urbanization, coupled with globalenvironmental change, is turning an increasing number ofhuman settlements into potential hotspots for disaster risk.The 2005 South Asian earthquake, in which 18,000 childrendied when their schools collapsed, and the Indian OceanTsunami in 2004 that wiped out many coastal settlements inSri Lanka, India and Indonesia, are testament to the risk thathas accumulated in towns and cities and that is releasedwhen disaster strikes. Numerous other cases illustrate thesuffering and losses experienced by urban dwellers due tonatural and human-made disasters (see Box IV.1).Part IV of this Global Report examines the consequencesof natural and human-made disasters for safety andsecurity in cities, and the policy options for preventing andreducing damage caused by these events. Disasters aredefined as those events where human capacity to withstandand cope with a natural or human-made hazard isoverwhelmed. The majority of the report focuses on largedisasters that register direct impacts at the community leveland above. However, the impacts of small-scale hazards,where direct impacts are limited to the individual or householdlevels, are illustrated through an examination of trafficaccidents that result in over 1 million deaths worldwide eachyear, more than any large natural or human-made disastertype.As highlighted in this part of the report, cities areparticularly vulnerable to the effects of natural and humanmadedisasters due to a complex set of interrelatedprocesses, including a concentration of assets, wealth andpeople; the location and rapid growth of major urban centresin coastal locations; the modification of the urban built andnatural environment through human actions; the expansionof settlements within cities into hazard-prone locations; andthe failure of urban authorities to regulate building standardsand land-use planning strategies. As cities grow, disaster riskoften increases through the rising complexity and interdependenceof urban infrastructure and services, greaterpopulation density and concentration of resources. Yet,urban growth need not necessarily result in increased disasterrisk.Inequalities in the distribution of disaster risk and lossin urban areas are evident at the global, national and citylevels: poorer citizens in cities of poorer countries are mostat risk. Disaster impacts are also varied, depending uponwhat is considered to be at risk. In terms of absolute mortalityand economic loss as a proportion of gross domesticproduct (GDP), regions dominated by low- and middleincomecountries record high losses. Indeed, Africa and Asiahave experienced the fastest rate of increase in theincidence of natural and human-made disasters over the lastthree decades. These are also among the world regions withthe highest rates of urban growth, indicating that risk willincrease in the future as populations grow. Absoluteeconomic loss from natural and human-made disasters ishighest in high-income regions such as North America andEurope, although Asia also records high loss in this respect.Indeed, high levels of economic development and politicalstability help to shift the impact of disasters from human tophysical assets, as is evident in the case of Europe. This illustratesthat disaster risk reduction planning, investment andmanagement capacity are critical in shaping vulnerability inhuman settlements.Disaster loss is also differentiated at the city level. Acity’s vulnerability to disaster impacts is shaped by its levelsof economic development and disaster preparedness. Thestructure of the urban economy determines which actorsbear the brunt of disasters, while its connectivity influencesthe global spread of impacts from one economy to another.At the individual level, disaster impacts vary according tosocial differentiation, with women, children, the elderly andthe disabled being most vulnerable. The greatest vulnerabilityto disaster is, however, experienced by the 1 billionpeople forced to live in urban slums worldwide. People hereare excluded from living and working in places protected byconstruction and land-use planning regulations and have theleast assets to cope with disaster shocks. But the speed ofurbanization can spread vulnerability to other social groups.For example, where building codes are not followed becauseof a lack of enforcement, disaster has claimed the lives ofthose living in the formal housing sector.The aggregate impact of small hazards and disasterson urban dwellers can be considerable, as shown in this partof the report. Traffic accidents are the best documented ofthe small-scale hazards, killing over 1.2 million peopleannually worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO)calculates the economic costs of traffic accidents to be 1 percent of gross national product (GNP) in low-incomecountries, 1.5 per cent in middle-income countries and 2 percent in high-income countries. Most deaths and injuries are