**1. Introduction**

The challenge of effective humanitarian response to disasters in towns and cities is set to increase, due to two key drivers. The first is rapid urban growth. By 2020, there were some 4.2 billion people living in towns and cities, which is over half the world's total population [1]. The figure is expected to grow to some six billion people by 2045 [2]. While most of the growth will be in Africa and Asia, Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) are also fast-urbanising—the urban population is expected to double within the next 20 years [3]. Seven PICTs have over half of their respective populations living in urban areas. Matching fast urban growth is an increase in the number of those who are vulnerable—those living in poor-quality, low-income settlements, many of which are poorly built and are located very often on poor-quality land.

The second driver is the predicted increase in severity and frequency of natural hazards, in particular those fuelled by climate change. Windstorms are set to worsen, while sea-level rises will increase the risk of regular, sustained flooding in particular to coastally located cities and towns. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that, for PICTs, current once-in-a-century extreme sea-level events

in the region may become annual events by 2050 (IPCC, 2019). Heat waves are set to increase, as is the incidence of fires. Neighbouring Australia has also encountered some of the worst disasters in its history, including the 2019–2020 'Black Summer' bushfires that killed 173 people and burned over 400,000 hectares of land [4] and subsequent widespread flooding.

As a result, disasters (defined as the consequence of a natural hazard meeting a vulnerable population) are on the increase. According to the IFRC, between 2008 and 2017 around two billion people have been affected by the consequences of natural hazards over the last 10 years, 95% of which were weather-related [5]. According to UNDRR, 'In 2021, a total of 432 catastrophic events were recorded, which is considerably higher than the average of 357 annual catastrophic events for 2001–2020' [6]. Of these, storms and floods were the most frequent hazard types and caused the highest levels of economic damage [7].
