Urban Risk Assessments

Urban Risk Assessments PDF Author: Thierry Paulais
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 082139455X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 379

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Book Description
This book presents a framework, the Urban Risk Assessment, for assessing disaster and climate risk in cities which is intended to assist in decision-making, urban planning, and designing risk management programs. The approach seeks to strengthen coherence and consensus within and across cities in understanding and planning for risk from natural disasters and climate change. The target audience for this book includes policy makers, urban practitioners and technical staff, and international organizations. The Urban Risk Assessment is a flexible approach based on three reinforcing pillars that collectively contribute to the understanding of urban risk: a hazard impact assessment, an institutional assessment, and a socioeconomic assessment. The URA is designed to allow flexibility in how it is applied dependent on available financial resources, available data relating to hazards and its population, and institutional capacity of a given city. Based on the identified needs and priorities, city governments can select the most appropriate level of risk assessment. Chapters 1 and 2 of the book are aimed at policy makers with information on why and how to invest in measures that strengthen the understanding of urban risk; Chapter 1 provides background information on the growing importance of disaster and climate risk management strategies at the city level and Chapter 2 provides guidance on how to operationalize and mainstream the Urban Risk Assessment with ongoing urban management and development activities. Chapters 3 and 4 are aimed at practitioners, and provide details on the conceptual approach, components, uses, and monitoring requirements for carrying out an Urban Risk Assessment.

Urban Risk Assessments

Urban Risk Assessments PDF Author: Thierry Paulais
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 082139455X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 379

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Book Description
This book presents a framework, the Urban Risk Assessment, for assessing disaster and climate risk in cities which is intended to assist in decision-making, urban planning, and designing risk management programs. The approach seeks to strengthen coherence and consensus within and across cities in understanding and planning for risk from natural disasters and climate change. The target audience for this book includes policy makers, urban practitioners and technical staff, and international organizations. The Urban Risk Assessment is a flexible approach based on three reinforcing pillars that collectively contribute to the understanding of urban risk: a hazard impact assessment, an institutional assessment, and a socioeconomic assessment. The URA is designed to allow flexibility in how it is applied dependent on available financial resources, available data relating to hazards and its population, and institutional capacity of a given city. Based on the identified needs and priorities, city governments can select the most appropriate level of risk assessment. Chapters 1 and 2 of the book are aimed at policy makers with information on why and how to invest in measures that strengthen the understanding of urban risk; Chapter 1 provides background information on the growing importance of disaster and climate risk management strategies at the city level and Chapter 2 provides guidance on how to operationalize and mainstream the Urban Risk Assessment with ongoing urban management and development activities. Chapters 3 and 4 are aimed at practitioners, and provide details on the conceptual approach, components, uses, and monitoring requirements for carrying out an Urban Risk Assessment.

Africa's Cities

Africa's Cities PDF Author: Somik V. Lall
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 9781464810442
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are experiencing rapid population growth. Yet their economic growth has not kept pace. Why? One factor might be low capital investment, due in part to Africa's relative poverty: Other regions have reached similar stages of urbanization at higher per capita GDP. This study, however, identifies a deeper reason: African cities are closed to the world. Compared with other developing cities, cities in Africa produce few goods and services for trade on regional and international markets To grow economically as they are growing in size, Africa's cities must open their doors to the world. They need to specialize in manufacturing, along with other regionally and globally tradable goods and services. And to attract global investment in tradables production, cities must develop scale economies, which are associated with successful urban economic development in other regions. Such scale economies can arise in Africa, and they will--if city and country leaders make concerted efforts to bring agglomeration effects to urban areas. Today, potential urban investors and entrepreneurs look at Africa and see crowded, disconnected, and costly cities. Such cities inspire low expectations for the scale of urban production and for returns on invested capital. How can these cities become economically dense--not merely crowded? How can they acquire efficient connections? And how can they draw firms and skilled workers with a more affordable, livable urban environment? From a policy standpoint, the answer must be to address the structural problems affecting African cities. Foremost among these problems are institutional and regulatory constraints that misallocate land and labor, fragment physical development, and limit productivity. As long as African cities lack functioning land markets and regulations and early, coordinated infrastructure investments, they will remain local cities: closed to regional and global markets, trapped into producing only locally traded goods and services, and limited in their economic growth.

Which Way to Livable and Productive Cities?

Which Way to Livable and Productive Cities? PDF Author: Kirsten Hommann
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464814058
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 59

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Book Description
For African cities to grow economically as they have grown in size, they must create productive environments to attract investments, increase economic efficiency, and create livable environments that prevent urban costs from rising with increased population densification. What are the central obstacles that prevent African cities and towns from becoming sustainable engines of economic growth and prosperity? Among the most critical factors that limit the growth and livability of urban areas are land markets, investments in public infrastructure and assets, and the institutions to enable both. To unleash the potential of African cities and towns for delivering services and employment in a livable and environmentally friendly environment, a sequenced approach is needed to reform institutions and policies and to target infrastructure investments. This book lays out three foundations that need fixing to guide cities and towns throughout Sub-Saharan Africa on their way to productivity and livability.

Financing Africa's Cities

Financing Africa's Cities PDF Author: Thierry Paulais
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821389483
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
This volume addresses the issues of financing urban growth of the African continent -- which has the highest urban growth rate on the planet -- in the next decades. Considerable investment will be needed to sustain this level of growth and to clear up accumulated backlogs. At the same time, decentralization has resulted in increased responsibilities for local government; but in most cases, institutional reforms were carried out without the transfer of a sufficient level of resources, and local capacities in governance and project management are weak. Which mechanisms will finance these extensive needs, and how will African local governments meet these needs? Specifics on how to finance African cities have not been studied. The actual scale of this market has not been fully grasped. A systemic approach to this market is difficult because of its diversity (country size; institutional context; characteristics of urban network; availability of capital market, currency, etc.) and a lack of data. Donors’ assistance methods in the sector are disparate, marked by disputes between different schools of thought; special-purpose vehicles created by donors operate according to a variety of methods and with wide-ranging and sparsely disseminated results. What is the best way to transform these systems, often antiquated in many respects, into modern financing systems that facilitate access to domestic markets, mobilize local savings and reinforce local government autonomy? There is no single answer to this question in regard to such a variety of institutional and economic contexts. The main objective of the study is to clarify the debates and to enlighten the choices of African decision-makers at local and national level.

African Cities and the Development Conundrum

African Cities and the Development Conundrum PDF Author: Carole Ammann
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004387943
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
This 10th thematic volume of International Development Policy presents a collection of articles exploring some of the complex development challenges associated with Africa’s recent but extremely rapid pace of urbanisation that challenges still predominant but misleading images of Africa as a rural continent. Analysing urban settings through the diverse experiences and perspectives of inhabitants and stakeholders in cities across the continent, the authors consider the evolution of international development policy responses amidst the unique historical, social, economic and political contexts of Africa’s urban development. Contributors include: Carole Ammann, Claudia Baez Camargo, Claire Bénit-Gbaffou, Karen Büscher, Aba Obrumah Crentsil, Sascha Delz, Ton Dietz, Till Förster, Lucy Koechlin, Lalli Metsola, Garth Myers, George Owusu, Edgar Pieterse, Sebastian Prothmann, Warren Smit, and Florian Stoll.

Land Delivery Systems in West African Cities

Land Delivery Systems in West African Cities PDF Author: Alain Durand-Lasserve
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464804346
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 133

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Book Description
This book proposes a new approach for a systemic and dynamic analysis of urban and peri-urban land markets in West Africa and applies it to Bamako, Mali. Based on a description of 'land delivery' processes, it sheds light on the challenges faced by the urban poor in accessing secure land.

New Urban Worlds

New Urban Worlds PDF Author: AbdouMaliq Simone
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745691579
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
It is well known that the world is transitioning to an irrevocable urban future whose epicentre has moved into the cities of Asia and Africa. What is less clear is how this will be managed and deployed as a multi-polar world system is being born. The full implications of this challenge cry out to be understood because city building (and retrofitting) cannot but be an undertaking entangled in profound societal and cultural shifts. In this highly original account, renowned urban sociologists AbdouMaliq Simone and Edgar Pieterse offer a call for action based fundamentally on the detail of people's lives. Urban regions are replete with residents who are compelled to come up with innovative ways to maintain or extend livelihoods, whose makeshift character is rarely institutionalized into a fixed set of practices, locales or organizational forms. This novel analytical approach reveals a more complex relationship between people, the state and other agents than has previously been understood. As the authors argue, we need adequate concepts and practices to grasp the composition and intricacy of these shifting efforts to make visible new political possibilities for action and social justice in cities across Asia and Africa.

Crowdfunding and Sustainable Urban Development in Emerging Economies

Crowdfunding and Sustainable Urban Development in Emerging Economies PDF Author: Benna, Umar G.
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1522539530
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 367

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Book Description
Economic and societal systems continually evolve as the needs and demands of society change. With the development of new technologies, research, and discoveries, various opportunities emerge for venture development and developing economies. Crowdfunding and Sustainable Urban Development in Emerging Economies provides innovative research on current issues in the rise of new platforms for digital activities, a collaborative economy, crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, and other activities that are shaping developing countries. Highlighting a range of pertinent topics, such as infrastructure finance, tertiary educational institutions, and urban sustainability, this book is an important resource for academicians, practitioners, researchers, and students.

Governing and Financing Cities in the Developing World

Governing and Financing Cities in the Developing World PDF Author: Roy W. Bahl
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781558443839
Category : Municipal finance
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description
Metropolitan cities are engines of growth and modernization in developing countries. The challenge is in governing these rapidly growing urban agglomerations and financing the operating costs required to meet the needs of the people and businesses. This report explores metropolitan governance and management approaches and assesses various financing tools, including taxes and user charges. It also explores external financing, such as transfers from higher-level government, borrowing, private-public partnerships, and international assistance.

The State of African Cities 2010

The State of African Cities 2010 PDF Author:
Publisher: UN-HABITAT
ISBN: 921132291X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 140

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Book Description
The State of the African Cities 2010 goes above and beyond the first report, which provided a general overview of housing and urban management issues in Africa. With the subtitle: Governance, inequity and urban land markets, the report uncovers critical urban issues and challenges in African cities, using social and urban geography as the overall entry points. While examining poverty, slum incidence and governance, the report sheds more light on inequity in African cities, and in this respect follows the main theme of the global State of the World's Cities 2010 report. Through a regional analysis, the report delves deeper into the main urban challenges facing African cities, while provoking dialogue and discussion on the role of African cities in improving national, regional and local economies through sustainable and equitable development. The report has been drafted in cooperation with Urban Land Mark. Through an analytical survey of several African cities, the report examines urban growth, social conditions in slums, environmental and energy issues and, especially, the role of urban land markets in accessing land and housing.