Resilient Cities: Coping With Natural Hazards

Abstract

Cities throughout history have been seriously affected by a wide variety of episodic natural hazards, from the effects of geological processes, such as earthquakes and volcanic action, to extreme weather conditions, such as those that produce storms and floods. These have often led to the destruction or devastation of urban places with great loss of lives and property. In the last few decades the increasing size and sprawl of many cities have increased the incidence and destructive effects of many natural hazards in general while global warming seems to be increasing the number of climate-related disasters. These trends are leading to the greater vulnerability of many settlements, although human activities often increase the scale of risk. A brief survey of the causes and trends in disasters caused by natural events in recent years is followed by an overview of the wide range of policies that can be adopted to improve the resiliency of people and settlements. They are designed to improve preparedness, reduce the impact of natural disasters that occur, as well as to help recovery from these problems, in which international help is increasingly available. Examples are used from around the world to show the effectiveness of these various policies.