Resilient Cities: Coping With Natural Hazards - Theme Cities: Solutions for Urban Problems - page 325

actions to cope with possible disasters are increasingly being taken before the haz-
ard occurs, while they are also integrative in the sense of dealing with many dif-
ferent sectors. So the physical improvements to reduce the risk from disasters are
complemented by policies to improve socio-economic conditions, such as future
employment, empowerment and quality of life issues in general. Moreover, in ac-
cordance with the main goals of the Hyogo resolutions in 2005, disaster risk reduc-
tion policies are gradually becoming part of a more general sustainable develop-
ment agenda, while local institutions are being strengthened to build resilience.
One of the most comprehensive of these new approaches is seen in The Second
Delta programme in the Netherlands, inspired by a 2006 spatial plan to protect
this low lying country against climate change in which sea levels are expected to
rise by 2-4 ft. by 2100. This long term national priority project, with its many ini-
tiatives, was formally adopted by the Netherlands government in 2009 to provide
transparent, balanced plans and designs to protect the country against floods, create
urban, economic and ecological development, tourism and freshwater management,
as well as building societal and political support, using ᾬ 1 billion in annual fund-
ing. The new comprehensive and adaptive approach is quite unlike the First Delta
programme implemented after the devastating floods of 1953 which focused on
engineering solutions. In the words of one reviewer:
adaptive delta management is not an approach that requires a simple technological change
from current practice. It demands a fundamental change in institutional capacity at multiple
levels including new knowledge and skills, relationships and policy frameworks……More-
over, contexts and transitioning pathways may vary from country to country and should be
taken into account. (Zevenbergen et al. 2012 )

9﻽7 Resilient Settlement Policies

9.7.1 Context

Any study or evaluation of the likely effect of some natural hazard in any settle-
ment or area has to begin with its context or background. Since countries and spe-
cific settlements vary in these conditions it is inevitable that the ability of places
to cope with natural hazards vary considerably. The contexts consist of two sets
of features. One is physical , consisting of the local environment and the range of
potential natural hazards that can cause problems to the population, as well as the
material physical constructions—the buildings and infra-structures in the settle-
ments. The other is the societal context , composed of such features as: its culture
and history, the economy and resources, knowledge and innovative capacity, the
well-being of the population—which includes health and their social protections—
and the state of governance. These characteristics provide a milieu which either
helps the ability of settlements to derive and apply risk reduction strategies, or
provide barriers to progress in this field.