Global report on human settlements 2007, disaster at a glance: how urbanization shapes disaster risk

Rapid urbanization is fast becoming a force shaping where and when disaster strikes and who it most affects. Huge concentrations of people and physical and financial assets in today’s fast-growing cities means that a single major disaster can result in human catastrophe and destroy decades of development gains. However, it need not be so. In those cities where government and civil society take risk reduction seriously, great progress can be made. Large cities and megacities concentrate and magnify risk. The location of major urban centers in coastal areas exposed to hydro-meteorological hazard and in geologically active zones is an additional risk factor.