Integrating risk reduction, urban planning and housing: lessons from El Salvador

Authors

  • Christine Wamsler Universidad de Lund

Abstract

Increasingly, attention has been given to the need to mainstream risk reduction in development work in order to reduce the vulnerability of the urban poor. Using El Salvador as a case study, the paper analyses the mainstreaming process in the developmental disciplines of urban planning and housing. The aim is to identify how the existing separation between risk reduction, urban. Since Hurricane Mitch in 1998, and especially after the 2001 earthquakes, social housing organisations have initiated a shift to include risk reduction in their fields of action. However, whilst positive experience has been gained through the implementation of more integral projects, the creation of adequate operational, organisational, institutional and legal frameworks is still in its initial stage. Unfortunately, funding for post-disaster risk reduction has come to an end without the allocation of resources for following up and consolidating the initial process. Based on the findings, an integral model is proposed which shows how mainstreaming risk reduction in urban planning and housing could be dealt with in such a way that it becomes more integrated, inclusive and sustainable within a developmental context.

Author Biography

Christine Wamsler, Universidad de Lund

Arquitecta y Urbanista, Master en Ayuda Humanitaria Internacional. Investigadora en el Instituto de "Housing Development & Management" (HDM), Universidad de Lund, Suecia, y consultora para diferentes organizaciones internacionales de desarrollo.