"Poor people living in slums are at particularly high risk from the impacts of climate change and natural hazards. They live on the most vulnerable land within cities, typically areas deemed undesirable by others and thus aff ordable. Residents are exposed to the impacts of landslides, sea-level rise, flooding, and other hazards.
Exposure to risk is exacerbated by overcrowded living conditions, lack of adequate infrastructure and services, unsafe housing, inadequate nutrition, and poor health. These conditions can swiftly turn a natural hazard or change in climate into a disaster, and result in the loss of basic services, damage or destruction to homes, loss of livelihoods, malnutrition, disease, disability, and loss of life.
This study analyzes the key challenges facing the urban poor, given the risks associated with climate change and disasters, particularly with regard to the delivery of basic services, and identifi es strategies and financing opportunities for addressing these risks. The main audience for this study includes mayors and other city managers, national governments, donors, and practitioners in the fi elds of climate change, disaster-risk management, and urban development.
The work is part of a broader program under the Mayor’s Task Force on Climate Change, Disaster Risk and the Urban Poor. Th is task force was launched at the Mayor’s Summit in Copenhagen in 2009 with the aim to better understand these issues, identify examples of good practices, and propose policy and invest_x005f_x005f_x005f_x0002_ment programs to improve the resilience of the urban poor. The task force com prises the mayors of Dares Salaam, Jakarta, Mexico City, and São Paulo, who have recognized the importance of these issues in their cities and have demonstrated strong support for taking action. In each of the four cities, urban risk assessments have been carried out that provide the basis for much of the knowledge in the study. Summaries of those cases are included in annexes 5–7 of this report."
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