There is a growing need to address vulnerabilities to climate change through
adaptation efforts, complementing mitigation efforts aimed at reducing the rate and
magnitude of climate change. At present, this development has taken place largely in
parallel to the increasing shift from disaster management to disaster risk management.
Disasters are associated with extreme weather events. Climate change directly
interacts with the exposure to climatic extremes. The challenge in the context of
adaptation is to move from the understanding that climate change is occurring to
concrete measures that reduce existing vulnerabilities of human and natural systems.
This study focussed on impacts and responses to flood risk among the urban poor
living in the highly vulnerable informal settlements in the Cape Flats of the City of
Cape Town, South Africa and those living along the Asa River channel in the city of
Ilorin, Nigeria. It explores the underlying vulnerabilities of the two areas and the
challenging problem of how to effectively shape human institutional responses to the
risk of natural disasters with a special focus on floods. The social risk management
(SRM) and asset-based approaches on which the study is based provide a conceptual
framework for understanding the sequential links between risks; human exposure and
sensitivity; the impacts of risky events; and risk management (or adaptation)
strategies. The study utilised primary and secondary data. The outcome of the study
shows marked differences in the vulnerability factors and the management of flood
related disasters in the two study areas. Furthermore, it was revealed that the
indigenous coping mechanisms employed by the poor may become less effective as
increasingly fragile livelihood systems struggle to withstand disaster shocks.
Strategies to reduce vulnerability should be rooted in vulnerability analysis and
greater understanding of both household-level and macro-response options that are
available to decrease the poor?s exposure to climate risk.