Natural disasters and the urban poor

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

Central America and the Caribbean is one of the most hazard-prone regions in the world. In addition, the region is heavily affected by poverty, unemployment, critical management of natural resources, and urban conglomeration in capital cities, especially in the Small Island Developing States, increasing vulnerability and risk to natural disasters and climate change. This paper examines characteristics of urban vulnerability to natural disasters and climate change in the Central America and the Caribbean Region. It argues that even though, the region is not vast in size, the diversity within creates different characteristics of vulnerability to natural disasters and thus requires an extensive variety of disaster risk reduction approaches and adaptation techniques.

Environmental Hazards, 2020

Tropical countries are subjected to natural disasters which cause substantial human and economic losses. Coping with disasters in tropics requires to improve our understanding of the frequency and distribution of hydrometeorological disaster events. These assessments are scarce in many developing countries, despite rapid urban expansion and lacking efficient public policies. Costa Rica’s location over the Intertropical Convergence Zone, its mountainous landscapes, and vulnerability generate risks conditions for urbans centers. Here, we analyze the Greater Metropolitan Area of Costa Rica (GAM in Spanish), a region that concentrates 65% of the national population. We analyze the hydrometeorological disasters occurrence and distribution in the GAM as well as a population and social indicators analysis to identify spatial patterns of demographic growth. Our results indicate that 5987 hydrometeorological disasters events were reported in the GAM between 1970 and 2018. From this total, 63.7% were floods, 35.3% landslides, 0.9% droughts and 0.1% storms. Coupling historical natural disasters and public policies to an urban sprawl continuous process in the GAM is a critical tool for land use planning and disaster risk reduction decision makers. Results from this study can enhance our understanding on the spatiotemporal characteristics of natural disasters in developing and/or tropical countries urban areas.

Even if natural hazards -volcanism, seismicity, mass movements and hydro-meteorological processes- continue to become manifest, it is human vulnerability that actually defines the degree of intensity of the damages associated either socially, economically and environmentally –i.e. disasters-. In most countries worldwide, indistinctively of their geographical location, wealth and degree of development, the occurrence of significant losses is becoming commonplace. The lack of persuasive strength of the arguments developed and conveyed by the scientific and engineering communities, unfortunately weight heavily upon the fact that managerial and political decision-makers are not convinced about the priority of reducing risk and do not stand on a more proactive attitude in fostering an integral preventive risk management strategies. Therefore, as it will be discussed throughout this paper, the reader will have the opportunity of deciding on whether to keep considering disasters as “natural” or, even if its use is widespread nowadays, leaving this term aside in order to re-think on our own responsibility on the matter.

Papers in Applied Geography, 2022

Central America is affected by geological and hydrometeorological hazards that, together with its high exposure and vulnerability, comprise risky scenarios for disasters. This region presents a significant number of casualties and economic losses due to disasters every year. We present an analysis of the origin of extensive risks (high-frequency-low-magnitude hazards occurrences) and intensive (low-frequency-high magnitude hazard occurrences) in Central America from 1990 to 2015 using the disaster databases EM-DAT and DesInventar. Findings reveal that Costa Rica reported the greatest number of both intensive and extensive risks (disaster occurrences) whereas El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras experienced the highest number of casualties in terms of injuries and lost, as well as highest number of damaged or destroyed houses by extensive and intensive risks. Disaster databases, like the ones employed in this research, provide useful data for risk assessment, land use planning, and risk management in developing countries. This study stresses the need for exhaustive risk assessment at the local, regional, and national scales.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

Charvériat, Céline. Natural disasters in Latin America and the Caribbean : an overview of risk / by Céline Charvériat. p. cm. (Research Department Working papers series ; 434) Includes bibliographical references. The views and interpretations in this document are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Inter-American Development Bank, or to any individual acting on its behalf.

City & Community, 2017

Urbanscapes of disaster are socially and environmentally constituted. Drawing upon the theoretical framework of social vulnerability to disasters, the concept of urbanscape is enriched and empirically verified. This paper highlights how urban social hazards are more relevant for vulnerable people than the risk of experiencing the negative effects of extreme natural events. The analysis of floods in a slum located in a Mexican city reveals intricate socioenvironmental conditions underpinning a disaster process. Findings reveal that social, political, and economic hazards (including criminal hazards), imposed by the urban model on its inhabitants, are the most difficult to cope with and adapt to. This paper contributes to the wider literature on disasters, presenting an in–depth qualitative analysis of the factors propelling urban dwellers to endure in a vulnerable urbanscape, regardless of the physical and environmental conditions at the site.

Iberoamericana, 2014

2015

The purpose of this work is to review ECLAC’s experience in assessing the economic and social impact of disasters. Toward that end, the database established according to assessment reports is described and the patterns of sectoral damage and losses from different types of events are defined.

1993

Contributing Paper to the UNDRR Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction (GAR2019), 2019

This work introduces the state of informal settlements in Latin America and the Caribbean based on a comprehensive review of recent reports on urban development from national governments. The authors explore potential relationships between informal settlements and national policies on urban development and disaster risk reduction, especially on how risk governance and disaster resilience are conceived and practiced. This paper analyzes 17 Habitat III National Reports issued during the preparatory process towards the New Urban Agenda in 2016 from: Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. Using statistics and qualitative methods, the authors look at variables such as access to drinking water and sewerage in the region, along with references to the Sendai Framework and urban policies. Results show that the situation of informal settlements in the region is complex and presents two different realities that coexist: there is one group of countries in which the provision of basic urban services poses great challenges for a significant proportion of the urban population, while the other group experiences urban informality and precariousness despite better statistics. Risk governance and disaster resilience principles are scarcely articulated in existing urban development discourses in the region.