Disasters pose a major threat to cities’ development. Consequently, a lot of attention has been put into increasing urban capacity to withstand, adapt and grow no matter what kind of catastrophic event they go through. However, th e majority of international campaigns and local actions to reach these objecti ves, focused exclusively in reducing vulnerabilities, have been proven insufficient to a void disasters. As argued in this paper, this is because cities are not only vulnera ble to disasters, but the epicenter of highly destruct ive global threats , which are mostly neglected. By using the l atest disaster science terminology t o examine hazard creation in the cities of Bangalore (India) and S ã o Paulo (B raz il), it becomes clear that unplanned urban development can be consi dered anthropic-hazard driver. This finding highlights the need for urban planners, researchers and local governments to focus on reducing hazard-creation with the same enthusiasm as they are trying to reduce vulnerabilities in urban settings.
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