Chapter 5 Climate and Disaster Resilience Mapping in City Clusters

In recent years, several studies have focused on city clusters like megacities and mega urban areas, as they concentrate a significant part of the world's human population and critical economic assets in potentially hazardous locations (Yusuf, 2007; WWF, 2009; Kraas, 2007; Jones, 2009). Metro Manila is one of such megacities, where even “regular” disasters affect a large number of people. The rapid pace of urbanization, coupled with an ever-increasing population burden, has significantly increased the overall vulnerability of urban agglomerations to natural disasters. By 2050, world population is expected to reach 9 billion people. Large numbers of people will be concentrated in megacities and on fragile lands, making the reduction of vulnerability to disasters in metropolitan areas a critical challenge facing development. Unmanaged rapid urban growth strains the capacity of national and local governments to provide even the most basic of services such as health, food, shelter, employment, and education. The challenge then is for the national government and most especially the local governments to develop effective policies, programs, and strategies that will help them manage urbanization to ensure development.