Shekhar Himanshu, Rautela Malvika, Maqsood Mehmooda, Paris Ricardo, Flores de León Rafael Maximiliano, Romero-Aguirre María Fernanda, Balinos Marygrace, Velázquez Mariana Estrada, Amri Gita Salehi, Rahman Tamanna, Asuah Augustine Yaw, Hosni Jilan, Rahman Md Shahinoor
United Nations University - Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), UN Campus, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, Bonn, 53113, Germany.
Figure Ground Inc Architecture and Planning, Jaipur, India.
Habitat Int. 2022 Mar;121:102517. doi: 10.1016/j.habitatint.2022.102517. Epub 2022 Jan 31.
COVID-19 initially spread among prominent global cities and soon to the urban centers of countries across the globe. While cities are the hotbeds of activities, they also seem highly exposed to global risks including the pandemic. Using the case of COVID-19 and the World Risk Index framework, this paper examines if the leading cities from the global south are inherently vulnerable and exposed to global risks and can they exacerbate the overall risk of their respective nations. Compared against their respective national averages, most of the 20 cities from 10 countries analyzed in this paper, have higher exposure, lower adaptive capacity, higher coping capacity and varied susceptibility. As this relative understanding is based on respective national averages which are often lower than the global standards, even high performance on certain indicators may still result in elevated predisposition. This paper concludes that the leading urban centers from the global south are highly likely to be predisposed to global risks due to their inherent vulnerability and exposure, and many of the drivers of this predisposition are related to the process of urbanization itself. This predisposition can enhance the overall exposure and vulnerability of the nation in which they are located.
新冠疫情最初在全球主要城市传播，很快蔓延到世界各国的城市中心。城市是活动的温床，但似乎也极易受到包括疫情在内的全球风险影响。本文以新冠疫情为例，运用世界风险指数框架，研究全球南方的主要城市是否天生脆弱且易受全球风险影响，以及它们是否会加剧各自国家的整体风险。与各自国家的平均水平相比，本文分析的来自10个国家的20个城市中，大多数城市暴露程度更高、适应能力更低、应对能力更高且易感性各异。由于这种相对认识是基于往往低于全球标准的各自国家平均水平，即使在某些指标上表现出色，仍可能导致易感性升高。本文得出结论，全球南方的主要城市中心因其固有的脆弱性和易受影响性，极有可能易受全球风险影响，而且这种易感性的许多驱动因素与城市化进程本身有关。这种易感性会增加它们所在国家的整体暴露程度和脆弱性。
