Reducing the vulnerability of populations to disaster is a crucial aspect of disaster management. Poverty and lack of resources increase vulnerability, weakens coping strategies and delays the recovery process. Poor people everywhere, especially in urban areas, are most at risk. Local authorities in developing countries are usually ill-equipped to provide sufficient infrastructure and services in urban areas. As a result, most of the world’s poor live in densely populated squatter settlements, on the periphery of cities, which lack the basics of life, leaving many inhabitants caught in a spiral of increasing vulnerability. Demand for commercial and residential land in cities has led to the use of unsuitable terrain prone to natural hazards. Many informal settlements are therefore located in dangerous or unsuitable areas, such as floodplains, unstable slopes or reclaimed land. Moreover, these cities are often unable to manage rapid population growth; poorly planned urbanization with increasing numbers of inadequately constructed and badly maintained buildings, thus further increasing the level of vulnerabilities in cities. Ironically, most of today’s largest cities are in areas where earthquakes, floods, landslides and other disasters are likely to happen. DMP has a broad range of experiences addressing vulnerability reduction and disaster mitigation including regional consultations in Central America and the Caribbean, the development of vulnerability reduction tools, support for national/regional initiatives on flood mitigation in Asia, and through DMP’s ongoing partnership with UNISDR.
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Assessing Vulnerability in Disaster and Post Conflict Situations