title: Urbanization, Extreme Events, and Health: The Case for Systems Approaches in Mitigation, Management, and Response.
abstract: Extreme events, both natural and anthropogenic, increasingly affect cities in terms of economic losses and impacts on health and well-being. Most people now live in cities, and Asian cities, in particular, are experiencing growth on unprecedented scales. Meanwhile, the economic and health consequences of climate-related events are worsening, a trend projected to continue. Urbanization, climate change and other geophysical and social forces interact with urban systems in ways that give rise to complex and in many cases synergistic relationships. Such effects may be mediated by location, scale, density, or connectivity, and also involve feedbacks and cascading outcomes. In this context, traditional, siloed, reductionist approaches to understanding and dealing with extreme events are unlikely to be adequate. Systems approaches to mitigation, management and response for extreme events offer a more effective way forward. Well-managed urban systems can decrease risk and increase resilience in the face of such events.
authors.affiliation: International Institute for Global Health, United Nations University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia siri@unu.edu.
authors.forename: José Gabriel
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Siri
authors.affiliation: Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
authors.forename: Barry
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Newell
authors.affiliation: Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
authors.forename: Katrina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Proust
authors.affiliation: International Institute for Global Health, United Nations University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Capon
mesh_terms: D001208:Asia; D002947:Cities; D057231:Climate Change; D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000379:methods*; D004190:Disasters / Q000517:prevention & control; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D014504:Urban Health; D014507:Urbanization; D014887:Weather
keywords: climate change; global health; governance; natural disasters; systems thinking; urban health; urbanization