ABSTRACT

Disasters in urban areas are experienced when life support systems fail in the face of pressure from external stress, resulting in loss of life, damage to property and the undermining of livelihoods. However, they are not natural events or ‘acts of God’, but products of failed development. For the majority of people at risk, loss to disaster is determined more by processes and experiences of urban development and governance than by the physical processes that shape natural or human-made hazards.