Introduction

Today, more than half the global population resides in urban areas. By 2025, roughly two-thirds of the world’s inhabitants and the vast majority of wealth will be concentrated in urban centres. Many of the world’s mega-cities, characterized as those with populations exceeding 10 million, are already situated in locations already prone to major earthquakes and severe droughts, and along flood-prone coastlines, where the impacts of more extreme climatic events and sea level rise pose a greater risk to disasters. Urbanisation happening in relatively smaller cities is also a concern—particularly in regions where existing infrastructure and institutions are ill equipped to cope with disasters. The vulnerability of this new generation of urbanites will become a defining theme of disaster risk in the coming decades. Against this backdrop, the report observes two diverging trends relevant to strengthening urban resilience.

Related Subject(s): Human Settlements and Urban Issues