Urban Disaster Resilience ─ New Dimensions from International Practice in the Built Environment

Accelerating urbanization worldwide is leading to more urban-centered disasters. With more people living in densely populated areas, the threat of increased loss of life, livelihoods and city fabric from floods, earthquakes, storms and conflict is becoming more of a reality. Poorer urban dwellers, who are usually the most vulnerable, bear the brunt of disasters. Aid agencies and urban professionals have been slow to adapt, and have yet to engage fully with mainstream relief and recovery efforts.

Urban Disaster Resilience draws from the experiences of urban disasters and conflict in over fifteen countries, including Nepal, Haiti, the Philippines, Thailand, Iraq and Chile. Examining the causes and consequences of urban disasters, this book highlights the opportunities for improved practices with a focus on resilience.

Edited by David Sanderson, Jerold S. Kayden, and Julia Leis, this is a crucial read for humanitarian professionals, government officials, city managers, urban planners and designers, architects, landscape architects and housing and economic development specialists in areas vulnerable to disaster.

David Sanderson is the inaugural Judith Neilson Chair of Architecture and Design at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia. He has held senior posts in both NGO and academic sectors, and in recent years has led post-disaster reviews in Haiti, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, the Philippines and Nepal.

Jerold S. Kayden is the Frank Backus Williams Professor of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He has consulted for the World Bank, USAID and UNDP, in China, Nepal, Armenia, Ukraine and Russia, and served as principal investigator of the Harvard-Netherlands Project on Climate Change, Water, Land Development, and Adaptation.

Julia Leis is a humanitarian relief and development worker. She has completed assignments in the Philippines, Gaza, Burkina Faso and Thailand. She holds a Master of Arts from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.