Governing Cross-Border Effects of Disasters in Urbanising Asia: What do we know?

This chapter reviews the existing literature on cross-boundary effects of disasters in Asia and their governance, paying particular attention to the role of urbanization. It considers scientific literature as well as reports by global, regional and national organizations and business actors, including, for instance, the insurance industry, trade associations and disaster risk management agencies. In addition, it analyses secondary statistical data, specifically examining the effects of selected, past disasters in East, South and Southeast Asia. The analysis shows that current knowledge on cross-border effects of disasters in Asia is very uneven in terms of, both, regions and themes. The paper therefore clearly identifies knowledge gaps and research needs. Apart from a better understanding of the material and physical cross-border effects, e.g. on food prices or migration flows, these pertain especially to the question of how disaster risk can be better mitigated and managed in an integrative manner. Even established regional platforms such as ASEAN face severe challenges in capacitating and implementing their policy frameworks for regional disaster preparedness and response. The chapter explores key barriers and offers first heuristics for the formulation of recommendations.