Disasters

Abstract

The number of people affected by disasters worldwide has been increasing over the past 20 years. This increase is driven by two forces: urbanization and global environmental climate change. As more people are living in cities, and many of those cities are close to water, environmental changes are exposing cities to ever more risk. This necessitates innovative urban responses to anticipate potential disaster risk, engaging elements of cities’ physical and social environment to promote resilience. This chapter considers the features of cities that pose risks to disaster stressors and the efforts to build urban resilience that can mitigate some of these risks.