World Disasters Report 2010 - International Federation of Red Cross ...

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CHAPTER 2 34 growth is often seen as a problem, it is generally the nations with the best economic performance that have urbanized most in the last 50 years. All the world’s wealthiest nations are predominantly urbanized; almost all the world’s poorest nations are predominantly rural. In addition, there is often an association between rapid urban change and better standards of living. Not only is most urbanization associated with stronger economies but, generally, the more urbanized a nation, the higher the average life expectancy and the literacy rate, and the stronger the democracy, especially at local level. Of course, beyond all these quantitative measures, cities are also centres of culture and of social and political innovation. Mega-cities may appear chaotic but most have life expectancies and provision for piped water, sanitation, schools and healthcare that are well above their national average – even if the aggregate statistics for each mega-city can hide a significant proportion of their population living in very poor conditions. Some of world’s fastest-growing cities over the last 50 years also have the best standards of living within their nation. Looking over the trends of large-scale disasters of the last decade from the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) database (EM-DAT), it seems that regions of the world that are more urbanized tend to have fewer deaths from natural disasters, but higher economic losses. This is understandable, given that urban areas concentrate high-value assets and that well-governed cities, especially those in high-income countries, should enormously reduce deaths and serious injuries – even if it is often less easy to guard against economic losses. It is noteworthy that cyclones, floods and earthquakes produce massive economic costs in Europe and Japan but very few deaths. Both Europe and Japan are highly urbanized, Europe has 72 per cent of the population living in cities and Japan, 66 per cent. In 2007, 65 disasters reported in Europe accounted for 1 per cent of the deaths worldwide but 27 per cent of the economic damages. In 2007, Japan had the highest reported economic damages for one single earthquake event on 16 July, costing US$ 12.5 billion whereas nine people were reportedly killed. In Africa, northern Africa has 21 per cent of the continent’s population and is the only highly urbanized region (51 per cent of its population lives in cities). In 2007, northern Africa had 12 per cent of the disasters that affected the continent, 6 per cent of affected persons, yet 45 per cent of economic damages for all of Africa. In the period from 2000 to 2006, northern Africa had 13 per cent of disasters, 1 per cent of affected persons, yet 75 cent of damages recorded for the continent as a whole. Identifying ‘urban’ disasters and their impacts Cities, with their concentration of people, buildings, infrastructure and economic activities, are the locus of both large and small-scale disasters. A look at the major disasters over the last ten years highlights that large-scale disasters, which affect a whole region, usually have an urban component to them (see Table 2.1). Some disasters could also be called ‘urban’ disasters, since the great majority of damages are concentrated in city centres. This is made evident by the recent earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, where urban areas sustained most of the losses and damages.
With the exception of the South Asian tsunami in 2004, many of the deaths and losses from earthquakes have been in cities. Of all large disasters, seismic events have killed the greatest number of people in recent years, averaging 50,184 people per year from 2000 to 2008. Flood events have affected the largest numbers of people, averaging Table 2.1 Large disaster events over the period 2000–2010 impacting on cities Popular name Haiti earthquake Sichuan earthquake Cyclone Nargis Java earthquake Kashmir earthquake Hurricane Katrina Mumbai floods South Asian tsunami Bam earthquake European heatwave Dresden floods Gujurat earthquake Main countries affected Haiti Date of event 12 January 2010 Type of hazard China 12 May 2008 Earthquake Myanmar 2 May 2008 Main cities affected Total number of deaths Total number of affected World Disasters Report 2010 – Focus on urban risk 35 Total damages US$ Earthquake Port-au-Prince 222,570 3,400,000 n / a Tropical cyclone Beichuan, Dujiangyan, Shifang, Mianzhu, Juyuan, Jiangyou, Mianyang, Chengdu, Qionglai, Deyang 87,476 45,976,596 85 billion Yangon 138,366 2,420,000 4 billion Indonesia 27 May 2006 Earthquake Yogyakarta 5,778 3,177,923 3.1 billion Pakistan United States 8 October 2005 29 August 2005 Earthquake Muzaffarabad 73,338 5,128,000 5.2 billion Tropical cyclone New Orleans 1,833 500,000 125 billion India 26 July 2005 Flood Mumbai 1,200 20,000,055 3.3 billion Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar Iran Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Switzerland Germany India 26 December 2004 26 December 2003 Earthquake and tsunami Banda Aceh, Chennai (some damages) 226,408 2,321,700 9.2 billion Earthquake Bam 26,796 267,628 500 million Summer 2003 Extreme heat Various 72,210 Not reported Not reported 11 August 2002 26 January 2001 Flood Dresden 27 330,108 11.6 billion Earthquake Bhuj, Ahmedabad 20,005 6,321,812 2.6 billion Source: EM-DAT: The OFDA / CRED International Disaster Database (www.emdat.net), Université catholique de Louvain – Brussels – Belgium. Complied by author.
Page 2: The International Federation of Red
Page 5 and 6: World Disasters Report 2010 Focus o
Page 7 and 8: Contents International Federation o
Page 9 and 10: Chapter 6 Urbanization and climate
Page 11 and 12: Annex 2 Making cities resilient: A
Page 13 and 14: annually despite commendable effort
Page 15 and 16: Avoiding the urbanization of disast
Page 17 and 18: in low-income nations even though a
Page 19 and 20: The last few decades have also brou
Page 21 and 22: But only a very small proportion of
Page 23 and 24: einforce the view that disaster ris
Page 25 and 26: institutions. Poor people have a lo
Page 27 and 28: Box 1.2 Can Haiti build back better
Page 29 and 30: was ‘illegal’, makes reconstruc
Page 31 and 32: that the needs and priorities of th
Page 33 and 34: Ravallion, M., Chen, S. and Sangrau
Page 35 and 36: Urban disaster trends It is well kn
Page 37: about 65 per cent of the world’s
Page 41 and 42: fires and traffic accidents. Buildi
Page 43 and 44: large cities in low- and middle-inc
Page 45 and 46: Figure 2.5 Port cities with highest
Page 47 and 48: expansion is driving risk in many A
Page 49 and 50: know the phone number) and the fire
Page 51 and 52: However, the incentive for owners t
Page 53 and 54: The focus on assets, especially hig
Page 55 and 56: Munich Re Group. Topics Annual Revi
Page 57 and 58: Starting over: Community rights and
Page 59 and 60: on this. However, it is complicated
Page 61 and 62: all those in the evacuation centre)
Page 63 and 64: those affected, help them get organ
Page 65 and 66: disaster events. Governments often
Page 67 and 68: In urban areas, rebuilding homes an
Page 69 and 70: ownership or other formalized/legal
Page 71 and 72: However, the scope of the upgrading
Page 73 and 74: Sources and further information Ade
Page 75 and 76: Syukrizal, A., Hafidz, W. and Saute
Page 77 and 78: Urban violence As more people crowd
Page 79 and 80: Drug production and trafficking Sou
Page 81 and 82: Economic development In economic te
Page 83 and 84: Surrounding what happens in homes a
Page 85 and 86: Table 4.1 Measuring inequality Coun
Page 87 and 88: Crisis of legitimacy Many states wi
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and in a sense of hopelessness for
Page 91 and 92:
At the same time, many of the world
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can help, but - as the Organisation
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Fukuyama, F. ‘A Quiet Revolution:
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Tedesco, L. Latin American States -
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Urban risk to health The rapid rise
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are malnourished, compared with 16
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show that prices of imported rice a
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pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria, meas
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SARS caused near global panic for a
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Urban life affects the way people w
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The Red Cross has 90 first-aid stat
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private life. Equally significant a
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Sources and further information Bur
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World Economic Forum. Global Risks
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Urbanization and climate change ris
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more frequent hot days and nights,
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impacts of changing precipitation p
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feedback have all been used to help
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Addressing the causes of climate ch
Page 129 and 130:
The Green Party Minister for the En
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The inquiry dealt only with technic
Page 133 and 134:
Ensuring climate and disaster prepa
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negotiations. However, there are no
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to peak if the planet is to have a
Page 139 and 140:
Sources and further information Ade
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Mata, J. L. and Nobre, C. Backgroun
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Urban governance and disaster risk
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the city government has developed a
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For many cities, including those me
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many such cities is participatory b
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due to El Niño. Many other factors
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all provinces by the end of 2009. T
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in informal settlements than in the
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Conclusion As we pointed out at the
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Fay, M., Ghesquiere, F. and Solo, T
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Satterthwaite, D. et al. ‘Adaptin
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World Disasters Report 2010 - Disas
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(eight windstorms, one flood, one w
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�� Miscellaneous accidents: Col
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Information systems have improved v
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Table 2 Total number of people repo
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Table 4 Total amount of disaster es
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Table 6 Total number of people repo
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Table 8 Total amount of disaster es
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During the decade: Asia accounted f
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During the decade: Medium human dev
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During the decade: Medium human dev
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During the decade: Americas account
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Total number of people reported kil
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Page 191 and 192:
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World Disasters Report 2010 - Disas
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Making cities resilient: A ten-poin
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The UNDP Country Office interventio
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which was the 1961 flood that invol
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with semi-rural mountainous areas,
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a Federal Relief Commission and an
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Benin 96, 119, 136, 182 Bogotá 86,
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disasters 7-8, 11-16, 18, 20-22, 26
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high-income nations 12-13, 16-17, 1
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landslide(s) 21-22, 45, 56-57, 117,
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Oceania 12, 166-169, 174-176, 178,
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slum(s) 7, 11, 15, 22-23, 28, 31, 3
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urbanization 7-8, 11-12, 16-19, 27-
Page 219 and 220:
The Fundamental Principles of the I
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