Success stories show ways to limit the damage to urban areas

Andrew Maskrey, head of risk knowledge at the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, argues there has an evolution in recent decades away from traditional disaster recovery, which was primarily seen as a role of the military and civil defence organisations. Now, there is greater emphasis on mitigation, using the skills of engineers, architects and planners. “We have moved away from just response to a much more integrated approach, of how and why disasters happen and their management,” he told Financial Times.

But he says far more needs to be done. “We are still doing development work as though on one planet and responding to disasters on a different one,” he says. “If governments don’t get serious about this over the next five years, then within five years, we risk going beyond the point of being able to adapt.”