Community Resilience to Global Climate Change-Related Disasters: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Global climate change-related disasters have dramatically escalated throughout the world. Among a range of unexpected calamities, hydrometeorological disasters have come to the fore. This is because, torrential rains, mass flooding events, cyclones, storms, landslides (wet), droughts, heat waves and cold waves are very predominant. In addition to that, global warming, wild/forest fires, and melting down of glacier/ice covers of polar and nearby regions are very serious. This is because community resilience and ecological resilience are dramatically eroding and challenging. The existing situation is very serious due to the inherent nexus between community resilience and ecological resilience. In this context, the study aims to conduct a systematic literature review on the extant literature of resilience and to identify the cardinal variables that are appropriate to measure community resilience to the ongoing global climate change scenarios. Methodologically, the study used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) model to filter the appropriate literature (followed by the identifying, screening, and including process). The study considered the manuscripts and reports published in English. Accordingly, inappropriate literature works were excluded. Finally, the study considered 33 literature works on resilience out of 117. According to the analysis and results revealed, six cardinal resiliency aspects were identified, namely, Socioeconomic resilience, Demographic resilience, Health resilience, Sociopolitical resilience, Social capital resilience, and Ecological resilience. These key resiliency aspects will extremely be important for securing the lives and livelihoods of the human population from the ongoing climate change impasses/crisis.