Scale, urban risk and adaptation capacity in neighborhoods of Latin American cities

Research is needed however, exploring both the multilevel factors and processes that determine urban risk and the complex pathways from hazards to impacts, and from perceptions and coping responses to adaptation.

This paper analyzes whether and under what circumstances urban populations experience risk in selected Latin American neighborhoods of Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Mexico and Santiago; it assesses their adaptation capacity, i.e., ability to perceive and respond to hazards. It finds that urban risk depends on scale: hazards, adaptation capacities, responses and their underlying societal and physical drivers vary across urban households, neighborhoods and cities.