On the lecture....
Urban risks can take various forms such as accidental deaths, natural and technological hazards, diseases, etc. For instance, majority of airplane accidents occur during take-off and landing, which puts all the settlements around airports in an increased risk. Thus, proper city planning needs to take into account such factors.
The state of population by itself poses a risk. In developing countries the problem is due to rapid population growth whereas in some developed countries, in contrast, it is due to a decrease in population. Although there is significant improvement in city life and increased involvement of governments in assessing and managing risks, there is still the demand for better security due to:
high concentration of infrastructure
high concentration of industries, trade and commerce
high population density
The long term impact of rising sea levels was also discussed. Coastal cities are in imminent danger and the economic impact of such a disaster is also bound to be massive. But what causes rising sea levels? Is it due to climate change? In my opinion it is and the biggest problem today is human action contributing to global warming.
On the weighting discussion....
In our weighting discussion, we tried to filter out, from the list of various urban risks, the most important ones in the European context. Even if we did not base our discussion on statistical data, we generally decided that hazards like floods, extreme temperatures and storms/cyclones, in that order, are very important to be taken into consideration when one plans urban environments in Europe. In another hand,Tsunami, earth quakes and volcanic eruption pose low risk. Incidentally, the weighting from the other group was more or less similar to our analysis.
Projecting this discussion to my own town, Addis ababa, would result in a different output. As Addis ababa is located in one of the poorest countries in Africa,Ethiopia, the main urban risks would mainly be related to overpopulation which is the root of all the problems.
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