The challenge of urban response

The 2010 World Disasters Report (WDR) focuses on urban risk in the context of a world which is urbanizing rapidly, where over half the world's population now live in cities for the first time and more people than ever before live in slums.

Urban poverty and disaster risk are often closely intertwined and the links between urban poverty and disaster risk will be increased by climate change.

The report states that the root cause of why so many people are affected by urban disasters is that a billion people live in poor-quality homes on dangerous sites with no hazard-reducing infrastructure and no services. In any given year, over 50,000 people can die as a result of earthquakes and 100 million can be affected by floods and the worst-affected are most often vulnerable city dwellers.

This video shows what are the implications in terms of shelter when the response has to be carried out in an urban environment.