Urban ARK Website Goes Live

We are delighted to announce that the Urban Africa Risk Knowledge (Urban ARK) project webpage is now live at www.urbanark.org. The DPU team comprised of Cassidy Johnson, Adriana Allen, Caren Levy, Barbara Lipietz, and Rita Lambert is a key part of the research consortium that was awarded £3.3 million from the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Department for International Development (DFID) Poverty Alleviation programme.

Urban ARK is a three year research and capacity building project that seeks to open up an applied research and policy agenda for risk management in sub-Saharan Africa in order to better understand the nature and scale of disaster risks in urban centres. By studying the interaction of environmental hazards in areas with poor housing and marginalised communities, one of the main aims of the research is to break the cycles by which vulnerability to risks accumulates in society.

Focus is on those at risk, especially in low-income and often informal or illegal settlements, but also on large scale planned urbanisation projects and how these reshape the social and environmental geographies of cities and consequent risk profiles.

The webpage showcases Urban ARK’s research, blogs, and other important content such as details on the first round of Urban ARK fellowships currently being advertised. The site will be regularly updated with interesting information and new content.

In addition, a French version of the website is going to be developed in the coming months and further information will be provided on these items when available, so keep an eye out for updates.

As well as the website, Urban ARK can be followed on their Twitter feed: @Urban__ARK