Life on the Edge: Urban Social Vulnerability and Decentralized, Citizen-Based Disaster Risk Reduction in Four Large Cities of the Pacific Rim

Abstract

Rapid urbanization and the growth of megacities have for the first time in history resulted in a predomi- nantly urban world. Such an urban explosion, most of which has been in the less developed countries, has increased human exposure to natural and anthropo- genic hazards. In particular, the 1990’s the world wit- nessed an exponential growth in disasters. There were 700 large-scale disasters in 1999 alone, which resulted in the death of approximately 100,000 people and caused economic losses in excess of US $ 100 billion. This figure reflects an annual 10 percent increase in losses throughout the decade. In 2003 weather related disasters alone cost insurers $ 60 billion (UNEP 2003).