Author(s)

MASHER IMAD AHMED MOHAMED

Abstract

The present study is an effort to prove that hybrid disaster (flood and flash flood) is the real result of human intervention in the natural phenomena in Khartoum. In recent years, floods and flash floods have threatened urban areas, causing effects on the physical environment and the social fabric of the state, which in turn has weakened the principles of urban sustainability in the study area. Understanding and knowledge of the types of disaster are key to determining actual causatives; therefore, the process of correctly classifying the disaster helps to achieve the optimum solutions in the problem under study. There are many reasons behind the disaster and the incapacity to handle it. The most important are: unstudied urban growth, the urban domination of Khartoum State, failure to control population increase, the lack of comprehensive schemes that integrate risk reduction as a basic element into the planning process. Lack of coordination between the competent authorities to reduce these disasters, migration and exodus because of civil wars, the community’s lack of perception of the risk and living in the main tracks of the River Nile are also vital causes of disaster. The study recommends the integration of risk reduction into the planning process at all the various stages; creating a planning model to reduce the overall phases of disaster risk; parallel development in other areas of the Sudan to reduce the state’s rate of exodus and migration; retrofitting the current urban plans by the expected climate indicators; and establishing controls and urban laws for building near the River Nile. The paper concludes by developing a model for risk-reduction integration with the planning process at all stages of the disaster in the study area.

Keywords

hybrid disaster, urban sustainability, urban domination, risk reduction