Advanced planning and urban regeneration

For millennia, the devastating consequences of natural hazards have been considered as ‘acts of God’, demonstrations of superior forces to any possibility of reaction and intervention by human beings (Quarantelli, 2000). Earthquakes, droughts, floods and storms are natural hazards, but unnatural disasters are deaths and damages resulting from the interaction with human being, goods and human activities (The World Bank, 2010). “Whether it be an earthquake or a tsunami, a cyclone or floods, the risk of a natural event turning into a disaster always depends only partly on the force of the natural event itself. The living conditions of the people in the regions affected and the options available to respond quickly and to provide assistance are just as significant. Those who are prepared, who know what to do in the event of an extreme natural event, have a greater chance of survival” (WorldRiskReport, 2011). The agglomeration of people, assets and economic activity make cities particularly vulnerable to natural hazards and, therefore, disasters. Some of the main drivers of risk in the city environment are (UNISDR, 2012): population growth and urban density; physical localization of urban settlements in areas at risk; rapid unplanned urbanization and the lack of disaster risk considerations in land management; weakness in local governance and insufficient participation of local stakeholders in urban planning and management; unwise environmental and natural resource management and so on. A disaster is a dangerous event that happens in a limited period of time and on a defined area affecting a considerable number of people and economic assets. It can derives from an acute shock (a sudden earthquake) or from a chronic stress (desertification due to climate change). The main criteria for defining a disaster are the number of confirmed deaths (> 10), the number of people affected by the event (> 100), the declaration of a state of emergency and the request for international aids. Its impacts are function of magnitude, frequency of occurrence, released energy, and other conditions such as climate, site geological characteristics, vegetation, population and land use. Disasters have mainly two causes: the first is the natural event itself, the second includes the characteristics of the elements at risk (population, infrastructures, economic activities), vulnerability and exposure, which make them more or less susceptible to being damaged from the hazardous event. In this context, as define by UNISDR, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) aims at preventing new and reducing existing disaster risk strengthening resilience and therefore achieving sustainable development. DRR aims also to reduce the damage caused by natural hazards through systematic efforts to analyze and reduce the causal factors of disasters. Reducing exposure, vulnerability of people and property, wise management of land (in urban and not urban area) and the environment, and improving preparedness and early warning systems are all examples of DRR. In the pre-disaster stage, Disaster Risk Management (DRM) identify two main phase: Prevention/Mitigation and Preparedness. In the first one, the main efforts are made to prevent or mitigate damage and the advanced planning is one of the most important strategies to mitigate risks in urban areas. Author explain how in urban and regional scale, permanent relocation (Areal change or Functional replacement strategies) is a DRM action useful management tool for reducing residents’ hazard vulnerability in floodplains, earthquake, landslide and volcanos prone areas and as a hazard mitigation measure with natural or technological threats. It is also a driving force to start a new and strong era of urban regeneration beginning from dismissed industrial areas always presented in contemporary cities.