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- Permanent Link:
- http://dpanther.fiu.edu/dpService/dpPurlService/purl/FI13042572/00001
Notes
- Summary:
- This document discusses urban disaster risk as a relatively understudied phenomenon, focusing particularly on the Latin American region. Today, the majority of the world’s population is urban. This is even more so in Latin America, where 75% of people live in urban areas. Along with this rapid rate of urbanization is the accelerated rate of risk accumulation. Most megacities throughout the region are located in areas with considerable physical hazards, which is compounded by the high levels of social vulnerability found in many of these developing societies. The dire condition of urban areas in poor countries is evident not only when the impact and damages caused by disaster are assessed, but also when the weakness of their response mechanisms, as well as rehabilitation and reconstruction capacities are taken into account. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that these challenges do not only affect developing countries, but also plague developed ones, as the Kobe, Japan earthquake and Hurricane Andrew in the United States have recently shown. Despite the significant risks facing urban centers, there has been little attention to the issue from both those within the development and urban planning community and those involved in disaster risk management (DRM). According to the author, environmental risk and urban disaster are connected through three interrelated problems. First, it must be understood that in urban areas there is a tendency for the factors that produce disaster to increase and compound upon one another as the process of urbanization continues. Second, the multi-faceted nature of cities can serve to create a context that hinders effective responses to disaster. Third, the concentration of assets in urban settings makes the reconstruction process particularly complicated. One of the main forms in which risk is constructed is through urban social processes like migration. While increasing rural-urban migration is one variable, this is further complemented with the high intra-urban mobility of the poor. These populations typically settle in low-value urban lands that are ill-adaptation to the environment, compounding existing vulnerabilities. In discussing DRM in the urban centers of poor developing countries, it is important to take into account how the lack of political will, weak institutional capacity, corruption, and the domination of urban planning process by interest groups can act as substantial barriers to effective environmental and urban risk management. ( English )
- Subject:
- Environment ( English )
- Subject:
- General Risk Management ( English )
- Scope and Content:
- EL PROBLEMA p. 1; LA CONCRECIÓN DEL RIESGO: DESASTRES URBANOS EN CENTROAMÉRICA p. 2; RIESGO Y CIUDAD: LA CONSTRUCCIÓN SOCIAL DEL DESASTRE p. 3; LA CONCENTRACIÓN, LA DENSIDAD Y LA CENTRALIZACIÓN p. 7; LA DEGRADACIÓN AMBIENTAL URBANA Y LA VULNERABILIDAD ESTRUCTURAL p. 9; LA VULNERABILIDAD POLÍTICA E INSTITUCIONAL p. 10; COMENTARIOS FINALES p. 11; BIBLIOGRAFÍA p. 12 ( Spanish )
- Citation/Reference:
- Lavell, A. Gestión de riesgos ambientales urbanos. Red de Estudios Sociales en Prevención de Desastres en América Latina (LA RED), Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO).
Record Information
- Source Institution:
- Florida International University
- Rights Management:
- Refer to main document/publisher for use rights.
- Resource Identifier:
- FI13042572
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