Urban transformations and changing patterns of local risk: lessons from the Mekong Region

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to fill a conceptual gap in the understanding of rapidly changing characteristics of local risk, addressing how the notion of the local might be reframed, and how opportunities for multi-scale interventions for disaster risk reduction might be identified. Design/methodology/approach – The paper illustrates the significance of the systems and services on which urbanization depends – water, food, energy, transport and communications – to consider the cascading impacts at multiple scales often beyond the administrative boundaries of cities, and how vulnerabilities and risks are distributed unevenly across different groups of people. Findings – The process of rapid urbanization in the Mekong Region represents a fundamental transformation of ecological landscapes, resource flows, livelihoods and demographics. In addition to the location of urbanization, it is these transformative processes and the critical dependence on inter-linked systems that shape the overall picture of urban disaster and climate vulnerability. Research limitations/implications – By drawing on research and practical experience in two of the most rapidly urbanizing countries in the world, Thailand and Vietnam, the approach and findings have implications for understanding global patterns of urbanization. Practical implications – The paper contributes to considering practical actions whether in terms of policy or project implementation for both the assessment of disaster and climate risk, and for actions to reduce vulnerability and promote resilience. Social implications – The paper draws largely from social science perspectives, highlighting the dynamism of social organization in urbanizing contexts, and the implications for risk and vulnerability. Originality/value – The paper draws on original research in Thailand and Vietnam that takes urbanization as the starting point for assessing vulnerability and risk.

Risk of natural hazards and the coping capacity of the South African community in Auckland

“…In coping with the new development, an amalgam of the scientific and indigenous coping system has become necessary (Kenney, 2015;Manning et al, 2015). In an urban community, the challenges to indigenous knowledge arise, firstly, from cultural and ethnic constellations that underpin risk perception and shape individual coping and, secondly, from the spatial transformation of the natural environment that modifies the predictive behaviour of the natural environment (Friend et al, 2015;Below et al, 2006). The transformation of social and ecological settings has implications for individual coping capacity in an urban environment.…”

Resilient Cities

“…UNISDR (2009) 1 defines it as the ability of a system, community or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate, and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner, including the preservation and restoration of its essential basic structures and functions. Friend et al (2015) provided a context for considering the rapidly changing characteristics of local-level risk and, in doing so, considered how the notion of the local level could be reframed and how the opportunities for multiscale interventions for disaster risk reduction could be seized. Tyler and Moench (2012) drew on complex systems and resilience thinking to consider the implications of urbanization for an understanding of local disaster and climate risk.…”

“…Tyler and Moench (2012) drew on complex systems and resilience thinking to consider the implications of urbanization for an understanding of local disaster and climate risk. Furthermore, Friend et al (2015) presented urbanization as a process of social and ecological transformation, and cities as dependent on complex systems and flows of resources beyond their physical location. These approaches emphasize the increasing influence of complex infrastructure and PRINTED FROM the OXFORD RESEARCH ENCYCLOPEDIA, NATURAL HAZARD SCIENCE (oxfordre.com/ naturalhazardscience).…”

“…In considering the local dimensions of disaster risk reduction, the focus is thus on the process of urbanization rather than on the physical location of cities, or on the administrative units of the city or municipality. This is not to reject the importance of place as a key determinant in disaster risk and vulnerability but to also argue for the growing importance of more multiscale, systems-oriented approaches (Friend et al, 2015).…”

Moving to dangerous places

“…While much research has been done on the drivers of rural-urban migration (see for more recent examples Duda, Fasse, & Grote, 2018;Friend et al, 2015;Yalew, Hirte, Lotze-Campen, & Tscharaktschiew, 2018), relatively little is known about the considerations people undertake in choosing where exactly to settle in urban areas (Augustijn-Beckers, Flacke, & Retsios, 2011;Babere, 2015;Fleischer, 2007;Loibl, & Tötzer, 2003). It is assumed that the distance to places of employment plays a role (Reza, 2017), but systematic research on this and other aspects is minimal (Huang, Parker, Filatova, & Sun, 2014).…”