Download the file - United Nations Rule of Law

Disaster risk: Conditions, trends and impacts171Year Location/area Country Hazard Mortality Economic losses Comment(US$ billion)2005 Northwest Frontier Pakistan (also affected: South Asian 73,000 (in Pakistan) 5.2 Collapsed schools killedand Pakistan-controlled India-controlled earthquake 18,000 children; 2.8 millionKashmir Jammu and Kashmir and made homelessAfghanistan)2005 New Orleans US Flood and 1863 81.2 The costliest natural disasterHurricane Katrinain US history2004 Banda Aceh Indonesia Indian Ocean Tsunami 70,000 – Complete destruction ofcoastal settlements2004 Bam Iran Earthquake 31,000 – World Heritage historic citydestroyed2003 European cities Europe Heat wave 35,000 to 50,000 – Impacts worst in cities; theelderly were most vulnerable2002 Dresden (and other Germany (also Flood 90 – 30,000 evacuated in Dresden;cities on the Elbe Hungary, Slovakia and cultural assets damagedRiver, as well asthe Czech Republic)the Danube)2002 Goma Democratic Volcanic eruption 47 – >100,000 made homeless;Republic of Congo25% of city destroyed2001 Gujarat India Earthquake 20,000 5.5 1.2 million made homeless2000 Maputo, Chokwe, Mozambique Flooding 700 – 4.5 million affectedXai-Xai and Matola1999 Caracas and Venezuela Flooding and Up to 30,000 1.9 5500 homes destroyed; rainscoastal Venzuela landslides in 2000 left another 2000homeless1999 Orissa and coastal India Cyclone >10,000 2.5 130,000 people evacuatedsettlements1999 Izmit Turkey Marmara earthquake 15,000 12 Failure to enforce buildingcodes a significant cause1998 Tegucigalpa, Honduras and Hurricane Mitch 11,000–20,000 5.4 Flooding and landslides causedHonduras and many Nicaragua most losssmaller settlementsin Honduras andNicaragua1998 Dhaka Bangladesh Flood 1050 4.31998 Gujarat and coastal India Cyclone Up to 3000 2938 villages affectedsettlements1992 South of Miami US Hurricane Andrew 65 261991 Coastal settlements Bangladesh Cyclone 138,000 – Three times as many womenas men were killed1988 Spitak and Armenia Earthquake 25,000 – 500,000 homeless; Spitak, asurrounding townscity of 25,000, was completelydestroyed1985 Mexico City Mexico Earthquake At least 9000 4 100,000 made homeless1985 Santiago Chile Earthquake 180 1.8 45,000 dwellings destroyed1976 Tangshan China Great Tangshan Around 300,000 – 180,000 buildings destroyedearthquake1972 Managua Nicaragua Earthquake >10,000 – Core of city completelydestroyedTable 7.3Selected recent naturaldisasters affectinghuman settlements(1972–2005)…the number ofrecorded disasters isincreasing as thenumber of peopleliving in citiesincreasesitants to disaster risk. Such processes underlying the vulnerabilityof urban areas to disaster are examined in greaterdetail later in this chapter.Despite such risk factors, vulnerability to disasterremains largely underestimated in urban development. 7There is no dedicated global database with which to analyseurban disaster events or losses. Indeed, few countries orcities systematically record disasters. Existing evidence does,however, indicate an upward trend in the annual number ofnatural and human-made disaster events reported worldwide,and a similar upward trend for global urban populationsince 1950 (see Figure 7.1).No simple causal link between urban growth andreported worldwide disaster occurrence can be made fromsuch data; but it is clear that the number of recorded disastersis increasing as the number of people living in citiesincreases. Given these trends, it is not unreasonable toconclude that, without major changes in the management ofdisaster risks and of urbanization processes, the number ofurban disasters will also increase in the future.An account of the urban costs of flooding inMozambique illustrates the complexity of factors exacerbatingurban disaster risks (see Box 7.2). The high levels of riskthat have already accumulated in urban societies due to acomplexity of factors means that, even with risk reductionactivity being undertaken today, disaster risk is set to increasein the foreseeable future. Furthermore, recent eventscontinue to show weaknesses in the ability of governmentsand of the international community to protect their citizensfrom, and to respond to, disaster. Experience from recentdisasters also points to a central role for sustainable humansettlements planning and management in risk reduction.Experience fromrecent disasters …points to a centralrole for sustainablehuman settlementsplanning andmanagement in riskreduction