Abstract:
According to United Nations Development Program (2021) nearly 84% of the fastest growing urban areas are facing extreme climate and disaster risks especially in Asia and Africa. In Sri Lanka, it is ranked 63 (out of 171 countries) on the World Risk Index and 56 (out of 191 countries) by the risk assessment platform of countries that are exposed to disaster risks [3]. According to the hazard profile of Sri Lanka, over 50% of the highly populated cities are located in disaster prone areas. Sri Lanka is a developing country, facing highly challenging situations with governance deficits, and resource constraints.
Therefore, risk sensitive urban development approaches have been a crucial concern in developing cities, where it integrates disaster risk reduction and adapting the climate smart measures into development planning across all sectors of development that help to protect development outcomes and investment made towards achieving development goals [3]. Disaster-vulnerable communities need active engagement in risk management to prepare, respond, and recover from disasters, utilizing their understanding on the risks and vulnerabilities they face and access to local resources and knowledge [2]. Therefore, participation of vulnerable communities within the decision-making process in risk sensitive urban environment is important. However, vulnerable communities are often marginalized in the decision-making process [1]. In the Sri Lankan context, community participation has been a least vital consideration in urban planning, not only in disaster risk reduction. Most importantly the existing attempts are lacking with the public participation where the awareness, trust, and interest of people towards the process has been marginalized.
