Urban Risk Assessments : Understanding Disaster and Climate Risk in Cities

The rapid and oft en unplanned expansion of cities is exposing more people and economic assets to the risk of disasters and the effects of climate change. For city governments, increased climate variability imposes additional challenges to effective urban management and the delivery of key services, while for residents it increasingly affects their lives and livelihoods due to more frequent floods, landslides, heat waves, droughts, and fires. There is an urgent need for cities to consider disaster and climate change by streamlining assessments of related risks in their planning and management as well as delivery of services. This paper proposes a framework for carrying out urban risk assessment, and seeks to strengthen coherence and consensus in how cities can plan for natural disasters and climate change. The Urban Risk Assessment (URA) was developed by drawing on lessons from existing efforts to assess risk in cities as well as urban planning literature. It was vetted through consultation and collaboration with international development agencies, the public and private sectors, and nongovernmental organizations. It minimizes duplicative efforts, and brings convergence to related work undertaken by the World Bank and other key partners. The target audience for this report includes: (1) decision makers such as city managers, mayors, and those involved in developing national and local policies related to urban development; (2) urban practitioners and technical staff at the municipal, regional, and national levels; and (3) international organizations. The assessment methodology focuses on three reinforcing pillars that collectively contribute to understanding urban risk: a hazard impact assessment, an institutional assessment, and a socioeconomic assessment. The URA allows flexibility in how it is applied, depending on available financial resources, available data relating to hazards and its population, and institutional capacity of a given city. Through the URA's sequencing, which is linked to complexity and required investment, city managers may select subcomponents from each pillar that individually and collectively enhance the understanding of urban risk.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Dickson, Eric, Baker, Judy L., Hoornweg, Daniel, Tiwari, Asmita
Format:	Publication biblioteca
Language:	en_US
Published:	Washington, DC: World Bank 2012-06
Subjects:	accounting, advanced economies, agricultural products, agricultural sector, balance of payments, bank lending, Bank Policy, banking sector, banking system, basis points, beneficiaries, broad money, budget deficit, budgetary allocation, business associations, Cash Reserve, commercial banks, commodity, commodity prices, Consumer Price, Consumer Price Index, consumer prices, consumption expenditure, consumption expenditures, Corruption, Credit Growth, Credit Source, current account, current account balance, current account surplus, dates, demand for food, developing countries, developing economies, domestic market, economic crisis, Economic Developments, economic performance, exchange rate, expenditure, expenditures, export credits, export growth, exposure, Fair, Fair Price, financial account, financial institutions, fiscal deficit, food distribution, Food for Work, food grains, food imports, food price, food prices, food resources, food security, food subsidies, food subsidy, Foreign exchange, foreign exchange market, Foreign exchange reserves, foreign investors, formal banking, frozen food, global economy, good faith, Grain Production, growth rate, growth rates, households, hypothecations, income, Inflation, inflation index, inflationary pressures, Infrastructure Finance, infrastructure project, infrastructure projects, insurance, interest rate, interest rate cap, interest rates, intermediate goods, international markets, Investment Climate, issuance, liquidity, loan, local market, macroeconomic policy, merchant, Microcredit, microfinance, microfinance institutions, migrant labor, migrant workers, mobile phone, Monetary Policy, money growth, money transfer, mutual fund, nonperforming loans, oil prices, open market, output, overdraft, overdraft loans, phone network, pledges, policy response, policy responses, Price Increase, Price Increases, price trends, private investment, Private Sector Credit, Public Debt, public investment, public stock, public stocks, public-private partnership, public-private partnerships, rates of interest, Refugee, regulator, regulators, Regulatory Authority, remittance, remittances, repayment, repayment period, repo, repo rate, repo rates, reserve, Reserve Requirement, reserves, retail, retail trade, sales, savings, sovereign debt, Stock Exchange, stock index, stock market, stock market volatility, stock price, stock trading, stocks, storage capacity, sugar, Tax, tea, telecommunications, Transparency, Union, urban areas, village, Vulnerable Group, wheat,
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/12356
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