Abstract
Changes in global urbanization and emerging patterns of disaster losses suggest that it may now be time to refocus the hazards research agenda on problems of very large cities. The resolution of urban disaster issues will require development of new collaborative strategies between victims, researchers, managers, policy makers and stakeholders in the hazards community and their counterparts in other urban interest groups. The experience of megacities in the United States and elsewhere that have been affected by recent major disasters and continuing hazards is examined to identify opportunities for initiating new policies and programs. Implications for hazard research and the concept of urban sustainability are noted.
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This paper is based on presentations to the International Symposium on Urban Growth and Natural Hazards, Universite Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, France, December 2–3 and the annual conference of the Institute of British Geographers, University of Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, 3–4 January, 1995. It also draws on material which is more fully reported in the forthcoming bookMegacity and Natural Disasters to be published by the United Nations University Press.
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Mitchell, J.K. Coping with natural hazards and disasters in megacities: Perspectives on the Twenty-First Century. GeoJournal 37, 303–311 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00814009
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00814009