Mitigating the impacts of disasters: policy directions
Abridged edition of Enhancing urban safety and security: global report on human settlements 2007:
This report examines the consequences of natural and human-made disasters for safety and security in cities, and the policy options for preventing and reducing damage caused by these events.
Chapter 1 presents a conceptual framework for understanding urban safety and security in general. Chapter 2 provides an overview of global trends in the incidence and impacts of natural and human-made disasters as well as those urban processes that contribute to the generation of risk. Building on this, Chapter 3 reviews existing policy approaches for reducing disaster risk and incorporating risk reduction within urban planning and management as well as within disaster response and reconstruction. Chapter 4 examines the trends — including policy trends — and impacts of road traffic accidents as an example of hazards threatening the safety and security of urban dwellers on a day-to-day basis.
Finally, Chapter 5 identifies future policy directions in disaster risk reduction at the city, national, regional and international levels. These include: improved risk mapping, disaster risk reduction legislation, strengthening of early warning systems, effective land-use planning, design of disaster resistant buildings and infrastructure, effective communication and emergency response systems, as well as strengthening of reconstruction capacity.