Studies: urban growth linked to floods,droughts

That study,the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction,compared the impact of cyclones in the Philippines and Japan,for example. While more people in Japan are exposed to cyclones,the estimated annual death toll from such storms is 17 times higher in the Philippines,the study said. Yet the report’s authors concluded that the level of vulnerability does not always mirror economic conditions,with high rates of disaster losses seen in a mix of developing countries with growing or weak economies.

The other study,conducted by the Global Network of Civil Society Organizations for Disaster Reduction,a coalition of private non-governmental groups,notes some isolated examples where communities acting on their own have found ways to reduce disaster losses. But it warned that many governments were lagging in efforts to make such resilience the norm,not the exception,despite having pledged to do so in a declaration in 2005.