Cities and Mega Risks: COVID-19 and Climate Change

This book focuses on the emergence of COVID-19 and climate change as twin mega risks to cities of both developed and developing countries. The work analyses how the pandemic has transformed city functions, promoted remote working, and affected socializing, education and learning patterns, recreation, as well as shopping and entertainment. It discusses the lessons learned from these two Mega Risks, the evolution of urban patterns and functions in their wake, and provides visionary thinking for the improvement of cities from the experiences gained. The COVID-19 Pandemic and climate change are both posing serious threats to cities’ future. Together, they demand changes in the ways cities’ function and operate. The work presents a case for a better understanding of the twin mega risks, the magnitude of their impacts, the responses of cities in combating these issues, and planning strategies for preparing, mitigating and adapting to these and future risks. The book is designed to provide reliable resource materials for a wide audience such as planners, professional practitioners, scientists, students, teachers and researchers working in various fields including geography, environmental sciences, social sciences, policy and planning.

Dr Mohammad Aslam Khan has been an educator and a Commonwealth Scholar, who prepared the State of Environment Reports in Asia and the Pacific for the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP). After retiring as Chief of the Environment Section from UN-ESCAP, he served as Foreign Professor Higher Education Commission at the University of Peshawar, where he had established the first Department of Environmental Studies and served as its founder Chairman. During the assignment as Foreign Professor, he initiated the establishment of the Centre for Disaster Preparedness and Management as the first Centre of Excellence in the country. The author has produced over hundred publications and reports including Environment and Climate Change Outlook of Pakistan for the United Nations Environment Program and Environmental Atlas of Pakistan for the Government of Pakistan. Along with his extensive post-graduate teaching and research experience, the author hasalso organized Ministerial Conferences, Intergovernmental Meetings   including negotiation meetings on climate change and other environmental issues.