Understanding the Compound Risk Context of Goma City Through the Pressure and Release Model

Abstract

As a border, natural-disaster prone and conflict-affected city, Goma faces several compound risks in the context of weak governance and the inadequacy of basic urban services and resources. This study uses an extended version of the Pressure and Release (PAR) model to identify the root causes of the city's vulnerability in context of urban dynamic compound risk generation. Furthermore, it intends to explain the disaster management system of Goma and its evolution through an analysis of the changes of disaster-related vulnerability between 1977–2002 and 2002–2021 in the context of the Nyiragongo eruptions. The research found that each of the 1977, 2002, and 2021 disasters had the unique aspects of deadliness, economics, and poor- and periphery-based disasters, respectively. It was also found that the unsustainable and exclusive recovery processes after the 1977 and 2002 eruptions had adverse impacts. Finally, these processes have resulted in gentrification and urban spatial marginalization amidst an environment of complex regional adversities.

Keywords: Social vulnerability, root causes, sustainable recovery, urban resilience finance, fragile and conflict-affected