Cities, Disaster Risk and Adaptation

This book addresses the urgent need for re-evaluating current city planning to provide better solutions. With disasters and changing climatic conditions being a product of past developments, responding and adapting effectively to risk is inherently complex. This book explores the complex interrelation between disasters, climate change, and cities, provides an understanding on how to integrate sustainable risk reduction and adaptation into city planning - both in theory and in practice, and analyzes the role that people-s coping strategies, urban institutions, and governance can play in addressing increasing disaster risk.

Christine Wamsler is Associate Professor at Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS), Associate of Lund University Centre for Risk Assessment and Management (LUCRAM), Sweden, and Honorary Fellow at the Global Urban Research Centre (GURC) and the Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM) of the University of Manchester, UK. She is also part of the personnel pool of risk reduction experts of the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB). In addition, Christine has been working as a consultant for diff erent organizations, such as the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), the German, Austrian and Belgium Red Cross, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Swedish Organization for Individual Relief (SOIR/IM) and various local NGOs. Places where she has worked and conducted research include Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, India, Kosovo, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, Sweden, Tanzania, Togo and the UK. Christine's　research interests are in sustainable city development and focus on disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and urban resilience.