Chapter 6 Climate and Disaster Resilience Mapping at Microlevel of Cities

Abstract

Building a resilient city requires detail and careful assessment of its current level of vulnerabilities and resilience. During such assessment and initiatives it should remember that there are large differences in risk and vulnerability within urban areas (Satterthwaite, Dodman, & Bicknell, 2009). It is natural to consider that the vulnerabilities and eventually the resilience level would not be same for all parts of a city, especially one that is relatively larger. A city, especially a large one, covers a substantial and often physiographically heterogeneous area with different exposures and susceptibility to hazards. Furthermore, a city's population and the conditions under which it lives are diverse. Therefore, some parts and peoples of a city may be more vulnerable than others (Klein, Nicholls, & Thomalla, 2004). In fact, cities form different microclimates within them because of the variations of land use, settlement patterns, functions, densities, and characteristics of the residential areas and their communities. All of these diversities contribute to disaster risk; in turn, these affect human development and the resilience of different parts of the city International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR).

Citation

Ara Parvin, G., Joerin, J., Parashar, S. and Shaw, R. (2011), "Chapter 6 Climate and Disaster Resilience Mapping at Microlevel of Cities", Shaw, R. and Sharma, A. (Ed.) Climate and Disaster Resilience in Cities (Community, Environment and Disaster Risk Management, Vol. 6), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 103-127. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2040-7262(2011)0000006012