Coastal community resilience frameworks for disaster risk management

Abstract

AbstractExtreme weather events due to climate change and growing economic and development activities along coastlines have resulted in increased risks from natural and human-induced disasters—affecting the safety and livelihoods of coastal communities. Assessing community resilience to disasters is, therefore, an essential step toward mitigating their current and future risks. This study provides a systematic review of coastal community resilience frameworks for disaster risk management, covering their content, structure, and assessment. Sixty-four critical resilience criteria under four dimensions are identified by analyzing the convergence and divergence of the consideration of assessment indicators in the reviewed frameworks. Existing frameworks focus mostly on ‘governance and institutions,’ ‘infrastructure,’ and ‘society and the economy.’ Despite significant risks, the impacts on the environment and potential risks of climate change are not prioritized. Only 22% of the frameworks consider future risks, rendering the remainder inadequate for assessing projected risks from climate change. None of the frameworks consulted the full spectrum of stakeholders (public, government, and experts) during the development process, which compromised their applicability, acceptability, and effectiveness. 56% of the frameworks considered a single hazard type. Community resilience is inherently multi-dimensional. Therefore, the interrelationships between multiple hazards should be adequately addressed in future frameworks.