Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
be developed should be quickly made, after thorough assessments of the areas and
when people are compensated for loss of land or residences. For example, Sri Lanka
provided compensation for owners of 19 thousand registered fishing boats that were
lost in the tsunami waves of 2005. This has led to rapid recovery, through the ability
to finance the building of new boats and then of fishing. But it did nothing for those
who had rented vessels or had unregistered boats or were landless labourers. Such
examples are rare. Indeed, there seems little doubt that the long term recovery of ar-
eas affected by natural hazards disasters may be the biggest problem of all, although
the short term recovery efforts gain the most attention.
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Conclusions
Most scientific authorities agree that the world is likely to see an increasing number
of disasters from natural hazards, which will particularly impact the big cities of de-
veloping countries. Hence there is a pressing need to decrease the level of risk from
these problems, as seen by the increasing attention paid to the topic by the U.N.
and major international aid agencies in the last decade. Not all of these hazards can
be predicted in advance, but some can be. The discussion of various problems that
must be addressed to increase the resiliency capacity of settlements issues as out-
lined in Figure 9.2 provides an integrated overview of the key issues, with examples
of successful policies from around the world. A major change in thinking about how
to cope with many these problems has occurred in the last decade, in which it is rec-
ognized that large engineering solutions are far from being the most effective ways
of protecting settlements. Certainly such approaches have their part to play, but the
major projects that work with, rather than against nature, and with people, show
a new approach to reducing the impact of natural disasters. In addition, it is rec-
ognized that the high death rates and property loss in underdeveloped countries is
associated with the fragility of the settlements and the poverty of their inhabitants.
Hence it is not enough to protect and rescue people; consideration should also be
given to their possessions and resources, assets which may enable them to recover
more quickly. So reducing poverty and increasing the economic status of people
helps people to better cope with disasters and enables faster recovery. In developed
countries there is likely to be insurance payments that provide some relief from loss,
but such schemes are rare in the poorer countries. So despite the progress that has
been made in recent years, and the greater degree of international co-operation in
assistance and knowledge sharing, the problems posed by the greater incidence of
natural disasters to settlements will still be a major issue on the future agendas that
seek to improve the life of people in many settlements throughout the world.
It must be also stressed that few places can cope on their own. Urban govern-
ments require help from higher levels of government and international agencies to
help mitigate the problems from natural hazards. Moreover, it must be accepted that
the increasing risks from extreme natural events is not simply due to basic geologi-
cal processes or features such as global warming. It is also a human creation. The
