Community Resilience Framework Research Articles

A conceptual framework for understanding community resilience to flooding

A conceptual framework for understanding community resilience to flooding

A Pacific community resilience framework: Exploring a holistic perspective through a strengths‐based approach and systems thinking

The impacts of climate change in the Pacific and worldwide have prompted researchers and practitioners to find ways to define, assess and support community resilience. This paper presents a community resilience framework to help meet this challenge. While traditional framings of resilience in scholarship are often based on deficit models that focus on vulnerability and gaps, this framework draws on strengths‐based principles and systems thinking approaches to support a holistic and integrated perspective of community resilience. Pacific community resilience literature underpins the framework, which values and prioritises diverse community insights to support locally defined pathways towards adaptation and resilience building. We offer examples of future application of the framework in a range of contexts such as research, programme design, strategic policy, programme implementation or evaluation.

Building Back Better After Disasters: Enhancing Community Resilience Through In-City Resettlement in Valenzuela City, Philippines

Build Back Better (BBB) is a recovery process that aims to make disaster-affected communities more resilient. This study analyzed the resilience of disaster-affected individuals relocated in an in-city resettlement project using the community resilience framework of the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) in the context of BBB. It contributes to understanding BBB in view of limited case studies of in-city resettlement. Employing mixed methods research design, data were gathered through key informant interviews, household surveys, documents, and observation. Results show that relocation significantly improved community resilience in terms of knowledge, health, infrastructure and services, connectedness, organization, and economic opportunities. Psychological support is lacking and mechanisms to manage the community’s natural assets need to be devised in view of spatial limitations. Good practices conforming to BBB principles include structural design improvement, hazard-based land-use planning, participatory approaches, provision of various services, adoption of a multi-partnership model, economic regeneration, and proper implementation through stakeholder management and disaster management legislation. Results indicate positive contributions of local government-managed in-city resettlement to community resilience when BBB principles are considered. Stakeholders in disaster governance can learn from the good practices identified towards better post-disaster recovery in line with SDG 11 on sustainable cities and communities.

Remarriage strategies for post-disaster widows and widowers following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Aceh, Indonesia

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami caused extensive loss of life and disrupted family units, leaving large numbers of widows, widowers, and orphans. While it is common to identify disaster widows and orphans as potentially vulnerable groups, there has been limited research about how families are reconstructed after a major disaster. The main objective of this paper is to better understand what factors motivate persons who lost a spouse in a disaster to either re-marry or stay single. We use quantitative data from a statistically representative survey of tsunami-affected households in the Banda Aceh, Aceh Besar, and Aceh Jaya districts in the Aceh province of Indonesia conducted a decade after the tsunami to show that 18% of households reported the death of a spouse during the tsunami. Out of these, 66% of widows/widowers reported marrying again within a decade after the tsunami, with most remarried within the first three years after the disaster. We use qualitative data from in-depth interviews with 36 widows and widowers to identify motivations behind the decision to remarry or stay single. We found that widows were most likely to get remarried to provide economic security, support for their surviving children, and because of concerns about their reputation if they were unmarried. Widowers were more likely to remarry to secure domestic support and caregiving for themselves as they got older and to help them care for their surviving children. Some widows and widowers decided not to remarry because of concerns about assuming additional financial liabilities, distressing their surviving children, and (for women) giving up personal freedoms. Our research on the re-marriage decisions of tsunami widows and widowers shows that very personal decisions about family should be seen within the framework of household and community resilience.

Exploring the rural transformation of the Loess Plateau from a perspective of community resilience: A case study from the Jiaxian County, northwestern China

Rural decline has become a global issue in the context of rapid urbanization worldwide. Instability, unsustainability, and vulnerability of rural development are pronounced on the Loess Plateau of western China, which is one of the most ecologically vulnerable regions worldwide. However, this issue has not received adequate attention. Thus, here, the Jianxian County, located in a semi-arid region along the Yellow River to the east of the Loess Plateau, was selected as the study area, to explore the adaptation and development transformation ability of rural communities on the Loess Plateau. A research framework of rural community resilience was established, farmer livelihood transition processes were depicted, rural transformation processes and pathways were identified, and the feedback mechanisms between community resilience and rural transformation was analyzed from 1990 to 2020. The results show that: (1) Rural communities in the Jiaxian County have experienced three approximate stages—agriculture, new agriculture, and non-agriculture. In terms of household type, the proportion of grain-dominant households and grain-dominant with non-agricultural households decreased to 10.4% and 1.5%, respectively. The proportion of date-dominant households and date-dominant with non-agricultural households increased first and then decreased to 0. The proportion of non-agricultural-dominant households was dominant, at 87.9%. The changes in village and community types were similar; both traditional-agricultural and new agricultural, and traditional and new agricultural communities evolved into non-agricultural villages and non-agricultural communities, respectively. (2) Farmer livelihood transformation has led to rural transformation from the bottom to top. During the transformation process, rural community resilience has shown a trend of continuous enhancement, and the growth rate has gradually accelerated. (3) Rural communities with strong resilience against external disturbances have transformed with positive opportunities for development. However, there may be a vicious circle; namely, powerful resilient rural communities usually have more opportunity to further improve resilience, and less resilient rural communities can only choose a single path. Therefore, national policies at the local level play a vital role in shaping and influencing these trajectories. The findings emphasize that only through active integration of internal community initiatives with external policy and administrative mechanisms can community capital be simultaneously enhanced.

Disaster impacts, resilience, and sustainability opportunities for Gili Trawangan, Indonesia: transdisciplinary reflections following COVID-19.

This article provides transdisciplinary reflections from scientists and local NGO managers on the international small‐island tourism destination of Gili Trawangan, Indonesia, concerning the impacts, short and long‐term adaptation strategies, and sustainability opportunities from two disasters occurring in rapid succession: the 2018 Lombok earthquakes and the COVID‐19 pandemic starting in 2020. A brief review of the island's governance challenges sets up our analysis of revisited findings and new empirical insights on how the island's communities have dealt with two unique disaster scenarios over the last three years. We draw on a community resilience framework premised on social capital and collective action theories to position the island's ability to transition towards sustainable tourism post‐pandemic. We conclude with sustainability opportunities going forward.

Flood-Related Federally Declared Disaster Events and Community Functioning (COPEWELL)

Objective: Understanding long-term disaster effects is key to building theories of recovery and informing policymaking. Findings regarding long-term recovery are inconsistent, with some scholars finding that disasters have little long-term impact, and others asserting otherwise. To assist in resolving this discord, we apply a conceptual framework and computational model of community resilience (“COPEWELL”) that places community functioning (CF) at the center of evaluating the effects of disaster over time. Using flooding as a disaster type, we hypothesize a change in baseline CF trend when a flood-related federally declared disaster event occurs. Methods: We used county-level flood-related federally declared disaster events (2010–2014) and selected population demographics to study their effects on annual CF trends among United States counties (N = 3141). Results: In multivariate analysis of baseline CF, we found a significant negative relationship of prior five-year flood status, federal regions relative to the Northeast (Region I), lower total earnings, and greater population size. Annual CF trend was 0.09% (95%CI: 0.01%–0.16%). In multivariate analysis, significant predictors included baseline CF (β = −0.0178, −0.0047–−0.0309), any concurrent flood-related federally declared disaster events (−0.0024, −0.0040–−0.0008), ten-year prior flood events (−0.0017, −0.0034–−0.0000) and concurrent population change (−0.0186, −0.0338–−0.0035). Conclusions: Recent floods depress baseline CF, while concurrent and ten-year-ago floods depress trend in CF. Resilience may potentially be modified by raising baseline CF and maintaining population over time.

Translating community resilience theory into practice: A deliberative Delphi approach

AbstractDespite the availability of important theoretical insights that could enhance the resilience of rural communities to complex challenges, there is a paucity of guidance on how to apply these insights in practice. This article therefore presents and assesses a deliberative research process using the Delphi technique to elicit expert knowledge from 22 academics, community practitioners and policymakers working in roles related to community resilience delivery in rural Scotland. The participants co‐produced an operational framework for community resilience, with support from researchers who facilitated the three‐stage, interactive process. The methodology enabled participants to work together in an iterative and inclusive manner, culminating in the collective development of a conceptual framework consisting of eight resilience‐enabling factors and corresponding criteria for monitoring change, which can be used to plan practical action and provide feedback to enable ongoing adaptation. The process also produced an in‐depth understanding of participants’ perceptions of rural community resilience, identified key factors that enable or impede rural community resilience, analysed the potential to assess community resilience and explored scale‐related issues. The article explores the implications of this framework for those working to make rural communities more resilient and reflects on the benefits and wider application of this type of research approach for developing shared understandings of complex concepts.

Unlocking the System: Place-based ways of working with children, their families and a neighbourhood psychologist in Bettws, Wales

In Public Health, recognition of the importance of the social determinants of health has led to significant shifts in practice and research. In the mental health sector, we are making great progress but ‘treating’ the social determinants of mental health requires a focus more on policy than on medication, therapy, and neurobiological innovation. It is now widely acknowledged that our mental health is largely determined by the conditions in which we are born, grow, work, live, and age. Conditions full of adversity and deprivation create a lack of opportunity, poor infrastructure and socially disconnected communities. These circumstances foster the conditions for community level adversity, trauma, and injustice. Solving the mental health crisis is therefore not about more access to one-to-one therapy, counselling, but about creating psychosocially health circumstances and communities for people to live in. For emotional health outcomes, we know the first 1,000 days but particularly the first two months are most crucial. It’s therefore important that support is provided early and sustained over this critical period. Working with parents with a child aged seven or younger alongside local primary schools using the human learning systems approach this project aims to explore how to communities can heal from trauma and adversity in ways that are human-rights focused, non-violent, trauma-informed, community-led, healing and culturally sensitive. Based on the adverse community experiences and resilience framework whilst using storytelling for systems change the project will look to co-develop a place-based approach to understanding and improving community wellbeing and resilience in Bettws, Newport.

COVID-19 Risk Management and Stakeholder Action Strategies: Conceptual Frameworks for Community Resilience in the Context of Indonesia.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has affected people’s lives globally. Indonesia has been significantly affected by this disease. COVID-19 has also affected certain social and economic aspects of Indonesia, including community resilience. Through a variety of contexts and geographic locales, we explore the previously mentioned concept of resilience. From existing literature reviews, we develop a holistic framework for community resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, we formulate crucial factors for community resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic: natural capital, social capital, human capital, stakeholder engagement, community participation, technology, and communication. Strategic stakeholder action in the community resilience domain has facilitated increases in economic as well financial capital for adapting to and surviving deficits in productivity in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study is a reflection on and a comparative review of the existing literature from different countries.

A learning design framework for community resilience: International and transdisciplinary perspectives on a boundary object

To equip graduates to respond to sustainability challenges, higher education institutions are developing programs and innovative pedagogical approaches that target new types of 21st century knowledge and skills. Resilience is a core concept in sustainability discourse, and one that is also driving pedagogical innovation that targets specific learner attributes. We argue that the topic of community resilience – as a theoretical boundary object – presents rich opportunities for transdisciplinary Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). This paper highlights international and cross-disciplinary trends in learning design for community resilience-focused university programs. The results outline the survey responses of 111 educators, researchers, and practitioners from a range of disciplines. One-way analysis of variance showed consistent results across the different groups of participants, regardless of geographic location, disciplinary background, or employment context. The research offers a learning design framework for teaching community resilience in higher education institutions, highlighting the importance of academic—practitioner collaboration in program development, disciplinary expertise to inform transdisciplinary learning, hybridised pedagogical approaches, and fostering student agency through assessment tasks.

Island communities and disaster resilience: Applying the EnRiCH community resilience framework.

To explore the beliefs, attitudes, and perspectives of community resilience in St. Kitts and Nevis. Qualitative Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis using the EnRiCH Community Resilience Framework for High-Risk Populations (EnRiCH Framework) to identify factors that enhance or create barriers to community resilience to disasters in St. Kitts and Nevis. Twenty-one key informants and 23 community informants provided insight into the history of disasters. Unique strengths and barriers that significantly influenced this high-risk population's adaptive capacity were identified. A discrepancy between the way disaster preparedness was perceived by government officials and the local population was noted. Cultural factors promoted connectedness and communication and created barriers to empowerment and collaboration. Innovative strategies were suggested that could enhance upstream leadership, downstream management, and resource management during disasters. Island communities represent a unique opportunity to examine risk reduction and vulnerability within the context of community and societal characteristics. This research addresses a significant gap in the literature on interventions that utilize a strengths-based approach to building adaptive capacity and resilience to disasters among at-risk populations. The EnRiCH Framework can be used to develop an approach to strengthen adaptive capacity and improve resilience to disasters.

The community resilience measurement throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond -an empirical study based on data from Shanghai, Wuhan and Chengdu

Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is widespread agreement in the field of public health that community resilience should be maintained and strengthened. However, there are significant differences in the pandemic prevention effects between different communities in different areas. To explore the main influencing factors on community resilience and the magnitude of their impact during the pandemic, this study collected 650 valid questionnaires from Shanghai, Wuhan and Chengdu by using the Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit Assessment Survey (CART). Data collection was conducted from February to March 2020 when this three cities activated a Level One public health emergency response. The data were analyzed by using multiple linear regression analysis and structural equation model. Results indicate that: (1) Domains such as Information and Communication, and Connection and Caring scored higher, while Disaster Management, Resources and Transformative Potential scored lower; (2) A community got higher resilience scores if it took more effective measures to prevent and control the pandemic(Shanghai > Chengdu > Wuhan), people within the community participated more actively in disaster risk reduction activities and activities of volunteer responder groups, and people were more closely connected with the community; (3) Variables such as the participation in affiliated volunteer responder groups, and community disaster risk reduction activities exerted the biggest impact on community resilience. Therefore, it is urgent to establish a community-based, resilience-centered framework of community resilience in the post-pandemic era. This framework will strengthen a community's capacity to cope with disasters and risks.

Knowledge Creation for Community Resilience (KCCR): A Conceptual Model

The lack of adequate knowledge sharing and knowledge creation about disasters and climate change has been identified as a reason behind the unsatisfactory performance of climate-adaptation and disaster-management practices. This study aimed to identify the critical factors in knowledge creation in order to improve community resilience and propose a conceptual model. The main objectives of this study were to i) identify the key factors supporting the creation of knowledge, ii) identify the key factors promoting community resilience, and iii) develop a conceptual model to improve community resilience based on knowledge creation. This study used both quantitative and qualitative methods. A cross-sectional analysis was conducted in four coastal subdistricts in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. A total of 300 samples were obtained from among respondents living in the coastal area using a purposive random sampling technique. The paper presents a literature review exploring theories and concepts concerning the factors supporting knowledge creation as a way to increase community resilience. A conceptual framework is then generated based on the results of field surveys and prior studies. The knowledge-level survey results indicate a need to develop a community resilience framework based on Knowledge Creation Theory as the foundation for decision making and ensure the transmission of knowledge across generations. This study proposes a conceptual model of Knowledge Creation for Community Resilience (KCCR).

Relational maintenance, collectivism, and coping strategies among Black populations during COVID-19

The current study, adopting community resilience and social creativity, explores Black individuals’ relational maintenance and collectivist strategies employed amid the COVID-19 pandemic. A sample of 410 Black adults across the United States answered open-ended web-based survey questions about identifiable shifts in relational dynamics and examples of mutual support exhibited among community members amid COVID-19. Findings include individuals implementation of media technologies to maintain communication and social support, the groups’ concentrated efforts toward providing health and wellness-based information, increased communal interaction, and the redistribution of monetary donations and volunteerism to support organizations promoting gender and racial equity. Outcomes demonstrate that Black populations embrace collectivist-orientated tendencies as a means of community resilience, extending the community resilience framework amid the ongoing crisis and absent of specific geographic location.

Students as Change Agents for Community–University Sustainability Transition Partnerships

While higher education institutions play a role in regional sustainability transitions, community–university partnerships for sustainability may be underdeveloped and fraught. Moreover, the specific role of students in building and strengthening those partnerships remains little explored. This research occurred in Laramie, Wyoming—the first community to resolve to pursue carbon neutrality in the top coal-producing state in the U.S.—amidst declining state revenue and absent any formal community–university sustainability partnership. Drawing on a community resilience framework and the social-theoretical construct of agency, we examined an informal, multi-year partnership developed through a project-based, community-engaged Campus Sustainability course at the University of Wyoming. Through a chronological sequence case study, we synthesized autoethnography, document analysis, and semi-structured interview methods involving community and university stakeholder and student participants. We found that students, rather than other university actors, played a vital bridging role in absence of a formal community–university sustainability partnership. They also served in a catalyzing role as change agents alongside community stakeholders, providing the potential to develop stronger community–university partnerships and advance sustainability transitions across other Wyoming communities. Findings suggest a need to keenly attend to power dynamics and whose agency is driving higher education institutions’ roles in regional sustainability transitions in specific contexts.

Coal communities and the U.S. energy transition: A policy corridors assessment

Local economies with immediate ties to coal-fired power generation face acute challenges from energy system transitions, particularly in the United States where energy policy is heavily devolved and uncoordinated. This study employs a community resilience and transition theory framework to examine how federal and state policies enable or constrain transition planning in rural, coal communities in the U.S. West. Our mixed-methods approach incorporates policy and document analysis with in-depth interviews with policy experts and practitioners. We find that the absence of a national energy transition policy exacerbates uncertainty for coal communities, and as a consequence, two distinct and diverging policy corridors emerge at the state level. According to expert interviews, existing transition assistance policies do not align with the needs and capacity of transitioning coal communities. Together, these findings highlight the need for policies that coordinate the energy transition and provide opportunities and resources that support communities navigating the social and economic impacts of transition.

Ecologies of Space in the Paradoxes of Technology and Community

Technology has afforded both opportunities and threats that contrast the paradoxes of our world and impact our communities in ways that are often unintended. By considering the meanings and understandings of technology in the circumstances of church, seminary, and library, especially under stressful conditions, and providing a framework for individual and community adaptability and resilience, we allow for a hopeful, curative, and constructive way forward in our present world—to a place of meaningful belonging and participative community. The roles that theological libraries and churches play in adapting will reinforce the needs of the present and the strategies for the future of theological education itself—especially as we identify specific ecologies of space—those places that afford us the opportunity to restore and develop who we are as human beings and faith communities. Finally, we will look at all of this through the most unexpected lens of change and challenge confronting our world in the last six months—the lens of a world ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic and how this has altered our conversation.

Community Resilience to Climate Change in Agricultural Sector (Case Study of Sentolo Subdistrict)

Climate change has become a global issue over last decades. Its impact affects to various aspects of human life. Uncertainty of dry and wet seasons present a consequence to and create losses on agriculture sector. Therefore, resilience to climate change is necessary for farmers. This research aims to identify exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity within the framework of community resilience to climate change in agricultural sector. Parameters used in this research include rainfall variability representing system exposure, landuse and topography representing sensitivity, and farmer’s knowledge and behavior representing adaptive capacity. Secondary data used in this research are daily rainfall data, land use and topographic maps, while primary data obtained by interview using purposive sampling method to measure adaptive capacity of farmers community. We employ trend, spatial, and descriptive analysis. The results show that Sentolo Subdistrict has a relatively high exposure to extreme events both in wet and dry seasons that occurred 5 times in 12 years. However, this high exposure did not affect agriculture sector on Sentolo significantly, both in terms of damages and losses to farmers. It indicates that the sensitivity to climate change in this area is low, while farmers’ community in Sentolo has a high level of adaptive capacity. They have sufficient level of knowledge to climate change, better adjustment to technology and well-managed assets. This interplay shows that the agricultural community in the study area has a relatively high resilience to climate change.

The Role of Para Social Workers in Rural Communities in Uganda: Strengthening Community Resilience for the Protection of Children

Para social workers (PSWs) are widely used in African nations to address inadequate capacity in the professional workforce, but there is to date very little academic commentary on the effectiveness of their role. This article considers the potential efficacy of the PSW model in strengthening child protection at community level in Uganda. Twenty interviews were conducted with local government officers, civil society organisation staff and PSWs (10 in each of 2 rural areas), together with four supplementary expert interviews. The data were analysed using a framework of community resilience. The findings suggest that the model has considerable potential to strengthen community‐level protection of children in circumstances in which the operation of formal systems is limited by resource constraints and outside interventions may struggle to gain understanding and acceptance within communities. Challenges include the potential for conflicts of interest to arise and the implications of increased reporting of child maltreatment for the response of the formal child protection system, including alternative care arrangements. Given its widespread and developing usage, further research to understand the conditions under which the PSW model is most effective and sustainable in different social, economic, political and cultural contexts is essential.‘This article considers the potential efficacy of the PSW [para social worker] model in strengthening child protection at community level in Uganda’Key Practitioner Messages PSWs can provide significant additional capacity to community‐level child protection arrangements at little cost in a culturally appropriate fashion. A key strength of the PSW model lies in its potential to regenerate community resources through the engagement of community members. Developing sustainable community‐based child protection arrangements requires that attention is paid to balancing fiscal considerations against community ownership and also the response of the formal child protection system to increased reporting of child maltreatment.