INTRODUCTION: CITIES AND THE URGENT CHALLENGES ■ 11cities, most disaster-related injuries and deaths occur among low-income groups
(UN-HABITAT 2007). Moser and Satterthwaite (2008) clearly demonstrate that
the main driver of increasing loss of life is poverty, which limits individual and
household investments, and exclusion, which limits access to public services. In
this context, not only does climate change exacerbate the existing vulnerabilities
of the poor, but it also creates new risks as more areas in a city are exposed to
climate-related hazards. Th e urgency is increased in those cities in developing
countries with high concentrations of vulnerable urban poor.
A framework for focusing on the urban poor is provided by Moser in “A Con-
ceptual and Operational Framework for Pro-Poor Asset Adaptation to Climate
Change,” which shows how the vulnerability of the urban poor’s assets can be
analyzed and off ers examples of asset-based adaptation responses. Vulnerability
varies depending on hazard exposure and the capacity to cope and adapt; these
in turn depend on factors such as settlement quality and infrastructure provision.
At the individual level, factors such as age, gender, and social status also matter.
Greater assets (both intellectual and physical) reduce vulnerability and improve
the capacity of the individual and community to react and adapt to disasters,
including post-disaster reconstruction.
A closer understanding of specifi c vulnerabilities is also useful for taking
concrete actions. Because many poor settlements are located in vulnerable
places or lack protective infrastructure, long-term resilience can be increased
by identifying better locations, increasing property ownership, and improving
infrastructure. At the community level, improving community capacity and
resilience is essential. Th e paper by Bartlett and others on the social aspects of
climate change in urban areas, together with the paper by Dodman and others,
reveals how community-based organizations and initiatives can be very eff ec-
tive in enabling adaptation among disadvantaged city dwellers.
An emerging conclusion is that the key to adaptation among the urban
poor is to continue to address the basic poverty reduction and sustainable
development agenda in cities to improve the livelihoods and resilience of the
poor—ensuring adequate and eff ective delivery of services such as health,
education, water, energy, public transport, and waste management; providing
safety nets and increasing food security; upgrading facilities and infrastruc-
ture in slums and other informal settlements; and providing security of tenure
and property rights.
Priorities for Future Work
Although the foregoing discussion has distinguished clearly between mitigation
and adaptation to climate change, responding to the complex challenges of cli-
mate change in cities does not always lend itself to distinct categorizations in terms