An adaptation of the Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities (BRIC) for assessing resilience of Iranian provinces

Abstract

In the recent decades, the frequency and intensity of natural disasters has increased. This trend is expected to continue in the future with climate change intensification. The main objectives of disaster risk management practices in all countries and communities are recognizing the mentioned patterns, building community resilience to reduce human and economic losses, and facilitating rapid recovery. Resilience assessment can inform these processes by, among other things, determining baseline performance and revealing priority intervention areas. This study aimed to assess the resilience of the provinces of Iran, as a country exposed to various types of disasters, based on the widely used Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities framework. The adapted framework included 35 indicators with five dimensions of social, economic, community capital, infrastructure and housing, and environment. For each of the 31 provinces, the overall and dimension-specific resilience scores were calculated. The results showed significant differences in community disaster resilience between the provinces. Overall, southern provinces that are close to the desert and characterized by hot and arid climates were relatively less resilient than other provinces. In contrast, northern provinces, especially those adjacent to the Caspian Sea had relatively higher resilience than others. Unexpectedly, we observed the low resilience of Tehran, the capital province, and its neighboring province, Alborz. Our results can inform planners and policymakers of the baseline performance of different provinces and facilitate evidence-based decision-making towards appropriate interventions and policies for enhancing resilience to climate change and other stressors. In addition to Iran, the results of this investigation provide useful insights for evolving resilience assessment frameworks in other developing countries.