Applying the urban political ecology (UPE) framework to re-visit disaster and climate change vulnerability-risk assessments

Vulnerability and risk assessment (VRA) is increasingly becoming more popular as a tool to assess and evaluate the likelihood and externalities that are faced by urban areas because of environmental hazards and climate change. However, urban dynamics are increasingly putting communities in a vulnerable/riskier situation, calling for a more comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach. Urban Political Ecology (UPE) was utilized as a framework to reflect upon the empirical findings and literature review with two urban villages (kelurahan) in Bandar Lampung, Indonesia—Kangkung and Kota Karang—as case studies. We argue that the existing VRA is not adequate to address fundamental issues of environmental hazards and climate change. Different aspects, such as the city’s metabolism of human-nature interaction, contribute to producing vulnerability and need to be taken into account. This research also recommends that future urban disaster governance should incorporate the production and alteration of (social) vulnerability by considering spatial and temporal dimensions in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.