Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
sub-components or dimensions can be identified within many of these main do-
mains or categories, each of which involve a number of individual policies de-
signed to help communities cope with natural disasters, although each category
could be subdivided into hundreds of specific areas, as seen in more detailed
schemes attempting to summarize the risk reduction needs (Twigg
2007
) .
It has already been shown that the incidence and number of potential natural
hazards vary widely, while citizens and governments have different abilities to
understand, let alone the capacity to implement policies that will reduce the risk
from natural hazards. So the priorities for action vary according to the character
and needs of the urban place in question. The resiliency deficiencies may be great-
est in settlements in developing countries. Most have few resources to cope with
these hazards, having poor physical infra-structures that only barely cope with
the regular natural rhythms of climate or geological activity—let alone extreme
events—and limited management structures or finances to create new policies. In-
deed a World Bank report (
2006
) estimated that 95 % of deaths from recent natu-
ral disasters were in developing countries and their loss in terms of the percent-
age of G.N.P. was 20 times as great in developed countries. The same source has
shown that in some countries the loss from natural disasters has seriously reduced
progress from development aid. For example, the February 2000 floods in Mo-
zambique, due to rainfall over six times the monthly average which was followed
by a cyclone, destroyed over 500 schools—more than the 487 schools financed by
the World Bank over the previous 20 years—as well as over 40 health units, in ad-
dition to widespread loses of cultivated and grazing land and most of the irrigation
systems. Similarly, the losses from the massive Kashmir earthquake in 2005 was
equivalent to the total official development assistance received over the preceding
3 years.
However the developed countries show the largest damages from natural haz-
ards, not in deaths, but in economic terms, due to the greater losses in personal
possessions and infrastructure in their cities. So far, the insurance coverage of their
businesses and inhabitants, as well as their emergency organizations and resources,
mean that the people and the settlements usually recover more quickly. Yet few
cities even in the developed world are safe from the devastating effect of many ex-
treme natural events. Much of their infra-structures and many of their buildings are
aging and not up to current safety standards, let alone having the ability to cope with
the new climate normals of many weather regimes. In addition, human organiza-
tions that are part of the risk reduction strategies need upgrading in view of the new
threats. Since the precise mix of requirements to reduce risks from natural disasters
vary from place to place, each urban area will need to select very different policies
according to their risk exposure and priorities as part of their overall planning for
coping with, and recovering from, natural hazards, in addition to those from strictly
human causes.
It is also worth noting that the old, largely reactive approach to some extreme
natural event, which usually affects only one of a limited number of sectors in ur-
ban places, is being replaced by more
proactive risk reduction approaches
that are
also more integrated
,
at least in developed countries. This means that a number of
