Abstract
The Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda require building resilience and effective risk management in order to achieve a better possible future. It is also true that no urban sustainability is possible without taking into account the risk dimension. In this sense, indices are increasingly important for emergency and sustainable development planning at different levels, particularly with respect to identifying vulnerable settlements and mapping disaster potential. This paper provides both a critical literature review and an empirical case study that highlight the importance of different types of decisions in the construction of risk index. However, during the exercise, it was clear that a risk index to be constructed with contextual sensibility can be challenging, especially around what indicators should be included, or how should they be aggregated, and if they should have differentiated weights. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a method of analysis, first based on existing information, second by proposing an aggregation method, and third proposing an overall risk index that can be graphically displayed. The case study focuses on the main natural hazards, exposure, and the social vulnerability of Quito, Ecuador. Overall results are calculated by applying Pareto ranking. The paper aims at providing an effective index to inform decision making and for effective urban planning in multirisks cities, with the final goal to reduce physical impacts and propose effective, sustainable, and resilient urban strategies.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Birkmann uses the definitions acquired from the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (2002), included in the Disaster Reduction and Sustainable Development: Understanding the Links between Vulnerability and Risk Related to Development and Environment. Available at: http://www.unisdr.org/files/3620_UNdocs21.pdf. However, for the present work updated terminology from The United Nations for Disaster Risk Reduction was used. Retrieved from: https://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/terminology.
- 2.
This information is based on interviews with local neighborhood leaders, might not be 100% accurate.
References
Adger, W.N., Brooks, N., Bentham, G., Agnew, M. and Eriksen, S.: 2004, ‘New indicators of vulnerability and adaptive capacity’, Tyndall Centre Technical Report 7, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Norwich, UK, accessed at http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/publications/techreports/techreports.shtml.
Alwang, J, Siegel, P, Jorgensen, SL. 2001. Vulnerability: a view from different disciplines. Soc. Prot. Discuss. Pap. Ser. 115, Soc. Prot. Unit, World Bank, Washington, DC. 42 pp.
Bianchi, S.M. and Spain, D.: 1996, ‘Women, work, and family in America’, Population Bulletin 51(3), Population Reference Bureau.
Birkmann, J. (Ed.), 2006. Measuring Vulnerability to Natural Hazards— Towards Disaster-Resilient Societies. UNU Press, Tokyo, New York.
Birkmann, J. (2007). Risk and vulnerability indicators at different scales: Applicability, usefulness and policy implications. Environmental Hazards, 7(1), 20–31.
Blaikie, P., Cannon, T., Davis, I. and Wisner, B.: 1994, At Risk: Natural Hazards, People’s Vulnerability, and Disasters, Routledge, New York.
Bohle, H.-G., 2001. Vulnerability and criticality: perspectives from social geography. IHDP Update 2/2001, Newsletter of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change, pp. 1–7.
Bohle, H.-G., Downing, T.E. and Watts, M.: 1994, ‘Climate change and social vulnerability: The sociology and geography of food insecurity’, Global Environmental Change 4, 37–48.
Cannon, T., Twigg, J., & Rowell, J. (2003). Social vulnerability, sustainable livelihoods and disasters. Report to DFID Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance Department (CHAD) and Sustainable Livelihoods Support Office.
Cardona, O.D., 2004. The need for rethinking the concepts of vulnerability and risk from a holistic perspective: a necessary review and criticism for effective risk management. In: Bankoff, G., Frerks, G., Hilhorst, D. (Eds.), Mapping Vulnerability: Disasters, Development and People. Earthscan Publishers, London.
Cardona, O.D., 2005. Indicators of disaster risk and risk management— main technical report. IDB/IDEA Program of Indicators for Disaster Risk Management, National University of Colombia, Manizales. Available at http://idea.unalmzl.edu.coS.
Chen, S.J & Hwang, C.L. (1992). Fuzzy Multiple Attribute Decision Making. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Clark, G., Moser, S., Ratick, S., Dow, K., Meyer, W., Emani, S., Jin, W., Kasperson, J., Kasperson, R. and Schwarz, H. E.: 1998, ‘Assessing the vulnerability of coastal communities to extreme storms: The case of Revere, MA., USA’, Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 3, 59–82.
Denton, F., Climate change vulnerability, impacts, and adaptation: Why does gender matter?, Gender & Development Vol. 10, Iss. 2, 2002.
Eakin. H., and Luers, A. M., Assessing the Vulnerability of Social-Environmental Systems, Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Vol. 31: 365–394 (Volume publication date November 2006), First published online as a Review in Advance on July 18, 2006, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.energy.30.050504.144352.
Enarson, E. and Morrow, B.H.: 1997, ‘A gendered perspective: The voices of women’, in W.G. Peacock, B.H. Morrow and H. Gladwin, (eds.), Hurricane Andrew: Ethnicity, Gender, and the Sociology of Disasters, International Hurricane Center, Laboratory for Social and Behavioral Research, Miami, FL, 116–140.
Fothergill, A.: 1998, ‘The neglect of gender in disaster work: An overview of the literature’, in E. Enarson and B.H. Morrow (eds.), The Gendered Terrain of Disaster: Through Women’s Eyes, Praeger Publishers, Westport, CT, 11–25.
Fothergill, A. and Peek, L.A.: 2004, ‘Poverty and disasters in the United States: A review of recent sociological findings’, Natural Hazards 32, 89–110.
Hoogeveen, J., Tesliuc, E., Vakis, R., & Dercon, S. (2004). A guide to the analysis of risk, vulnerability and vulnerable groups. World Bank. Washington, DC. Available on line at http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTSRM/Publications/20316319/RVA.pdf. Processed.
Kasperson, JX, Kasperson, RE. 2001. Workshop summary. Int. Workshop Vulnerability Glob. Environ. Change, Stockholm: Stockh. Environ. Instit.
Kelly, PM, Adger, WN. 2000. Theory and practice in assessing vulnerability to climate change and facilitating adaptation. Clim. Change 47:325–52.
Klein, RJT, Nicholls, RJ, Thomalla, F. 2003. Resilience to natural hazards: How useful is this concept? Environ. Hazards 5:35–45.
Liverman, DM. 2001. Vulnerability to global environmental change. See Ref. 99, pp. 201–16.
Ludena, C.E., S.W. Yoon. 2015. Local Vulnerability Indicators and Adaptation to Climate Change: A Survey. Inter-American Development Bank, Technical Note No. 857 (IDB-TN- 857), Washington DC.
McCarthy, J.J., Canziani, O.F., Leary, N.A., Dokken, D.J. and White, K.S. (eds.): 2001, Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation & Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Molin Valdes, H., Rego, A., Scott, J., & Aguayo, J. V. (2012). How to make cities more resilient: a handbook for local government leaders. Geneva: United Nations UNISDR.
Morrow, B.H.: 1999, ‘Identifying and mapping community vulnerability’, Disasters 23, 1–18. National Hurricane Center: 2003, ‘Hurricane awareness: Storm surge’, accessed at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/stormsurge.shtml.
Municipio del Distrito Metropolitano de Quito, 2016, Atlas de Amenazas Naturales, Quito.
Municipio del Distrito Metropolitano de Quito. (MDMQ, 2012, March). Plan Metropolitano de Desarrollo y Ordenamiento Territorial 2012–2022.
Municipio del Distrito Metropolitano de Quito. (MDMQ, 2015, March). Plan Metropolitano de Desarrollo y Ordenamiento Territorial 2015–2025. (i) Diagnóstico Estratégico Eje Social, (ii) Diagnóstico Estratégico Eje Económico, (iii) Diagnóstico Estratégico Eje Ambiental, Diagnóstico Estratégico Eje de la Movilidad (iv), Diagnóstico Estratégico Eje Territorial (v), Diagnóstico Estratégico Centro Histórico.
Rygel, L., O’sullivan, D., & Yarnal, B. (2006). A method for constructing a social vulnerability index: an application to hurricane storm surges in a developed country. Mitigation and adaptation strategies for global change, 11(3), 741–764.
Thywissen, K., 2006. Core terminology of disaster reduction: a comparative glossary. In: Birkmann, J. (Ed.), Measuring Vulnerability to Natural Hazards—Towards Disaster Resilient Societies. UNUPress, Tokyo, New York, Paris.
Turner II BL, Kasperson RE, Matson PA, McCarthy JJ, Corell RW, et al. 2003. A framework for vulnerability analysis in sustainability science. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100:8074–79.
United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR), 2004. Living with Risk. A Global Review of Disaster Reduction Initiatives. 2004 version. UN Publications, Geneva.
United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR) (2005, March). Hyogo framework for action 2005–2015: building the resilience of nations and communities to disasters. In Extract from the final report of the World Conference on Disaster Reduction (A/CONF. 206/6) (Vol. 380).
United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR) (2007, August 30). Terminology. Retrieved from: https://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/terminology.
Wisner, B., 2002. Who? What? Where? When? in an emergency: notes on possible indicators of vulnerability and resilience: by phase of the disaster management cycle and social actor. In: Plate, E. (Ed.), Environment and Human Security: Contributions to a Workshop in Bonn, 23–25 October 2002, Germany, pp. 12.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Jacome Polit, D., Cubillo, P., Paredes, D., Ruiz Villalba, P. (2019). R.I.S.Q: Risk Assessment Tool for Quito. In: Alalouch, C., Abdalla, H., Bozonnet, E., Elvin, G., Carracedo, O. (eds) Advanced Studies in Energy Efficiency and Built Environment for Developing Countries. Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10856-4_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10856-4_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-10855-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-10856-4
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)