An Assessment of Disaster Risk Management in Urban Informal Settlements and its Effectiveness on the Urban Poor Case Study: Mukuru Kwa Njenga

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Abstract:

Informal settlements, where mostly the urban poor reside, tend to be located in hotspots of natural hazards such as floods, fire, and even earthquakes. The devastating impacts of these natural hazards on such settlements can be attributed to the higher levels of physical, economic, social and environmental vulnerability in conjunction with inadequate and poor level of disaster preparedness. Conceptualizing a detailed risk profile, in the context of informal settlement characteristics presents a starting point to which the impacts posed by environmental hazards can be addressed effectively. The policy environment such as land use planning impacting the informal settlement characteristics i.e. demographic, financial, social, and locational is key to managing disaster risks in informal settlements and can assist in disaster preparedness.
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