Community Resilience Research Articles

Chiefs and floods: hybrid governance and co-production of flood risk adaptation in Tamale, Ghana

ABSTRACT Climate change is changing physical and social risks facing people in African cities. Emerging awareness is beginning to stimulate a wide range of adaptive responses. These responses are playing out in a complex institutional and governance context which shape their effectiveness and legitimacy. Employing a hybrid governance approach, we investigate the development of flooding and flood protection in the context of urban development in Tamale, Ghana. We argue that the interplay between traditional and state-based authority shapes the market for land, the regulation of land use and the provision of urban services, including flood protection. Hybrid governance influences the types of knowledge applied to urban problem-solving, the legitimacy of choices made, the human and other resources that can be deployed in building community resilience and the willingness to act in the provision of public goods by communities. We suggest how the existing hybrid governance setting could be strengthened to achieve more effective and legitimate adaptation to dynamic flood risks under climate change in Tamale, with lessons for other West African contexts.

Thriving in the Anthropocene: Building Community Resilience to Combat Climate Change

Thriving in the Anthropocene: Building Community Resilience to Combat Climate Change

Conceptualizing community disaster resilience framework for Myanmar

ABSTRACT Enhancing disaster resilience has become crucial for minimizing vulnerabilities and mitigating the impact of disasters on people. This study aims to provide a holistic understanding of community disaster resilience that highlights the significance of local communities’ ability toward disaster risk reduction in Myanmar. Our concept focuses on three main components: emergency preparedness, adaptive capacity, and community management, which can contribute to the real resilience of local people living within Myanmar’s flood-prone area. We developed the framework through a step-by-step process built upon existing scholarly debates, and participatory consultations with community stakeholders, especially an approach to capacity-based resilience characteristics. Our framework can be applied to assess community resilience to climate change-related disasters and will allow organizations such as Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to evaluate the challenges and opportunities of the community more effectively for disaster risk reduction in Myanmar.

Empowering Medical Students by Facilitating Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Training for Their Peer

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) training is an essential component of medical education, equipping students with life-saving skills to respond effectively in emergencies. Following a CPR training program, this study investigates the impact of medical students’ knowledge and confidence levels as they facilitate hands-on CPR sessions for their peers. Through a review of literature and empirical analysis, this research elucidates the benefits of peer-assisted learning in CPR education. Results indicate a significant improvement in both knowledge and confidence levels among facilitators following the CPR training program. Overall, the findings highlight the invaluable role of medical student facilitators in enhancing CPR training outcomes and fostering a culture of peer support and empowerment within the medical community. This study underscores the significance of integrating peer-assisted learning strategies into CPR education programs, providing medical students with opportunities for both personal and professional growth. By leveraging the expertise and enthusiasm of medical student facilitators, educators can enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of CPR training initiatives, ultimately contributing to improved patient outcomes and community resilience in emergencies.

Community-Based Disaster Insurance for Sustainable Economic Loss Risk Mitigation: A Systematic Literature Review

This systematic literature review (SLR) explores the role of community-based catastrophe insurance (CBCI) as a tool for sustainable economic loss risk mitigation. Utilizing bibliometric analysis and a literature review, this study aims to reveal the methods employed in CBCI schemes from a novel perspective, highlighting their effectiveness in mitigating catastrophe risks. The PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) methodology was employed to systematically collect and analyze articles sourced from the Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Dimensions databases. The findings provide a comprehensive summary of the CBCI implementation, including various considerations such as risk-sharing mechanisms, premium determination, and policy frameworks. This research offers a fresh perspective on CBCI as a sustainable approach to catastrophe risk mitigation, contributing valuable insights to policymakers, practitioners, and researchers interested in community resilience and disaster risk management.

Empowerment of Satlinmas in Improving Public Order and Security

The general background highlights the growing need for community involvement in safeguarding human rights and maintaining social stability, particularly in the context of regional apparatus empowerment. The specific background focuses on the role of Satlinmas in Candi District, where community members are organized to take an active part in protecting citizens against human rights violations. Despite existing research on community empowerment, there remains a knowledge gap regarding the effectiveness of Satlinmas in achieving these goals. This study aims to investigate how Satlinmas empowerment contributes to maintaining public order and security through a framework called Tri Bina, which encompasses Human Development, Business Development, and Environmental Development. The results indicate that Satlinmas has successfully enhanced community capacity through training and education, supported local businesses by ensuring a conducive environment for economic activities, and engaged in environmental preservation efforts. The novelty of this research lies in its comprehensive approach to community empowerment, emphasizing the interconnectedness of various developmental aspects. The implications of these findings underscore the importance of integrating community protection units into broader public safety strategies, highlighting the potential for improved community resilience and collaboration in safeguarding rights and maintaining order. Highlights: Community protection units improve public order and security. Tri Bina framework enhances human, business, and environmental development. SATLINMAS promotes community engagement in safety and environmental cleanliness. Keywords: Empowerment, Security, Environment, Community, Business

Data‐driven machine learning for multi‐hazard fragility surfaces in seismic resilience analysis

AbstractOffshore earthquakes and subsequent tsunamis pose significant risks to many coastal populations worldwide. This paper introduces a data‐driven machine learning model that synthesizes accurate 3D earthquake–tsunami fragility surfaces from randomly selected 2D fragility curves. The integration of physics‐based simulations enhances the model's reliability for these specific hazards, making it a valuable tool for multi‐hazard analysis in earthquake–tsunami contexts. Additionally, by shifting 2D fragility curves to represent retrofitted structural systems, the model can generate earthquake–tsunami fragility surfaces for community‐level mitigation studies. While the model is demonstrated for earthquake–tsunami scenarios, its methodology architecture has the potential to contribute to other multi‐hazard situations for the initial conditions in multi‐hazard community resilience analysis.

Design Framework for VR Games in the Police Domain

The escalation in the number of conflicts poses various implications and consequences to society, demanding a comprehensive understanding from a law enforcement perspective. The surge in conflicts introduces significant challenges related to public safety, necessitating adaptive strategies for both conflict and crime prevention and resolution. Accordingly, effective policing must adapt to the evolving dynamics, employing a nuanced approach that addresses the root causes of conflicts and enhances community resilience to avoid or mitigate them and their broader societal impact. A pivotal role is this direction is played by the ongoing technological advancements that facilitate actions like enhancement of situational awareness, analyzing patterns and anticipating potential hotspots and activities, facts that sustain both proactive and reactive measures. In particular, technological advancements in Virtual Reality (VR) present a valuable avenue for addressing policing challenges, especially in relation to conflict resolution, mitigation, and prevention. Building VR simulations for training purposes offers a controlled yet realistic environment for officers to practice e.g., de-escalation strategies and decision-making under stress. These gaming simulations provide a platform to expose officers to diverse scenarios, fostering adaptability, encouraging communication and collaboration, and enhancing their ability to properly handle conflicts with precision and self-control. At the same time, VR systems can be developed for societal awareness and educational purposes, fostering better understanding and communication between law enforcement and the public. While a broad range of governmental, practitioner, and academic efforts exist aiming at building and incorporating VR solutions for various purposes in the police domain, specific areas that involve other societal forces and bystanders need more attention. It is then the aim of this article to capture existing design and evaluation principles as well as lessons learned from existing VR solutions in the police domain. This is done by proposing a design framework for responsible VR gaming solutions in the police domain following the Design Science Research methodology in a transdisciplinary approach.

Improving community resilience to disrupted food access: Empirical spatio-temporal analysis of volunteer-based crowdsourced food delivery

Unplanned disaster events can greatly disrupt access to essential resources, with calamitous outcomes for already vulnerable households. This is particularly challenging when concurrent extreme events affect both the ability of households to travel and the functioning of traditional transportation networks that supply resources. This paper examines the use of volunteer-based crowdsourced food delivery as a community resilience tactic to improve food accessibility during overlapping disruptions with lasting effects, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate disasters. The study uses large-scale spatio-temporal data (n = 28,512) on crowdsourced food deliveries in Houston, TX, spanning from 2020 through 2022, merged with data on community demographics and significant disruptive events occurring in the two-year timespan. Three research lenses are applied to understand the effectiveness of crowdsourced food delivery programs for food access recovery: 1) geographic analysis illustrates hot spots of demand and impacts of disasters on requests for food assistance within the study area; 2) linear spatio-temporal modeling identifies a distinction between shelter-in-place emergencies and evacuation emergencies regarding demand for food assistance; 3) structural equation modeling identifies socially vulnerable identity clusters that impact requests for food assistance. The findings from the study suggest that volunteer-based crowdsourced food delivery adds to the resilience of food insecure communities, supporting its effectiveness in serving its intended populations. The paper contributes to the literature by illustrating how resilience is a function of time and space, and that similarly, there is value in a dynamic representation of community vulnerability. The results point to a new approach to resource recovery following disaster events by shifting the burden of transportation from resource-seekers and traditional transportation systems to home delivery by a crowdsourced volunteer network.

Designing for happiness, building for resilience: a systematic review of key factors for cities

ABSTRACT Cities today face the dual challenge of increasing vulnerability to disruptions and a growing demand for improved quality of life. By prioritising happiness and resilience, cities can create sustainable environments that promote health, social cohesion, and adaptability to various stresses and withstand economic, social, and environmental shocks while fostering the well-being, inclusivity, and quality of life of all residents. This study aims to understand what indicators most impact urban resilience and happiness through a systematic literature review. Our analysis uncovered that factors with a dual impact on improving urban resilience and happiness fit into the following categories: individual, social, socio-economic, environmental, infrastructural, technological, resource-based, place-based, urban planning, and housing-related. This study provided a comprehensive understanding of how urban design and policies can enhance both resilience and happiness in cities. Policymakers and planners can adapt and use the identified indicators and strategies to enhance citizens’ happiness and create a resilient community in various contexts and under diverse stressors.

Bedouin Adolescents during the Iron Swords War: What Strategies Help Them to Cope Successfully with the Stressful Situation?

This study examined the emotional reactions and coping resources of Bedouin teenagers (ages 12-18) following the events of 7 October 2023 and the subsequent Iron Swords War between Israel and Hamas forces in Gaza. This study focused on the relationships between subjective exposure, personal sense of coherence, community resilience, and the use of different coping strategies, on the one hand, and anxiety, anger, and psychological distress, on the other. During 2024, 762 participants completed the study questionnaire, which addressed the different study variables. The findings revealed significant differences between the boys and the girls. Specifically, the girls reported higher levels of subjective exposure and emotional reactions. Personal sense of coherence was found to be a significant protective factor. In contrast, the use of nonproductive coping strategies increased distress. This study underscores the need for intervention programs tailored for this society and by gender, as well as training for educational professionals, to help them to identify and treat emotional reactions to stress in ways that take into consideration the Bedouin cultural context. This study enhances our understanding of how Bedouin teenagers cope with stressful situations and crises.

Model Komunikasi dalam Mitigasi Bencana Banjir di Kabupaten Kerinci dan Sungai Penuh

This article discusses the problems of development communication in flood disaster mitigation in Kerinci Regency and Sungai Penuh City. Kerinci Regency with its mountainous topography and extensive river network often experiences flood disasters, which have worsened in recent years. This study aims to explore an effective communication model in reducing the impact of flooding and improving community preparedness. Using a literature study method, this study highlights the importance of two-way communication between the government and the community, community-based education, and the use of modern technology such as social media and mobile applications. The results of the study indicate that a participatory communication model that actively involves the community and a technology-based early warning system can improve disaster mitigation and community response. This article provides a more inclusive communication approach, involving various stakeholders, to strengthen community resilience to future disasters.

‘Don’t call us vulnerable!’: Rethinking flood vulnerability and community-led governance

ABSTRACT Traditional views on flood vulnerability often present a simplistic government-community relationship, portraying communities as passive recipients of aid. This perspective overlooks the dynamic agency of urban residents in shaping their own governance structures. Recent research challenges this binary thinking by revealing how communities actively manage flood risks. However, the intricate interplay between government absence and community-led actions, and their role in everyday governance, remains underexplored. Drawing on scholarship in flood vulnerability and community-led governance, this paper examines the experiences and management strategies of flood-prone residents in Dansoman, Accra, using interviews, focus groups, and “follow-along participant observation.” Three key themes emerged: “anticipate and navigate,” “collaborate and compensate for,” and “rupture and replace.” These themes illustrate how residents acquiesce to, reconfigure, or challenge government roles in flood management, establishing self-governance through community-led initiatives. These efforts often legitimize and strengthen community resilience, sometimes even usurping and replacing state authority. The findings underscore the need to recognize community agency in managing flood risks and compensating for insufficient government support through solidarity and self-help. Policymakers can enhance flood management by incorporating these community-driven insights, fostering more effective, inclusive, and sustainable strategies that reflect the fluid, evolving relationships between government and communities.

Climate change and population aging: The role of older adults in climate change mitigation

This paper explores the intersection of climate change, population aging, and community resilience, focusing on the potentially powerful roles of older adults in climate change mitigation efforts, particularly in developing countries. Through a brief review of relevant literature in the fields of environmental studies, gerontology, and community development, the paper examines the vulnerabilities of older adults to climate change impacts and their potential contributions to adaptation and mitigation strategies. By integrating findings from some existing literature, the paper contributes to ongoing conversations about the inclusivity of climate change actions and the empowerment of marginalized groups. Our suggestions include harnessing the traditional knowledge and leadership of older adults and empowering them to act as climate change activists within their communities. Additionally, the paper suggests encouraging older adults to organize community capacity-building workshops that advocate for environmentally sustainable initiatives. We conclude by emphasizing that neglecting older adults in the climate change discourse risks exacerbating entrenched social inequalities and overlooks the potentially valuable resources and knowledge that older adults can contribute toward climate change mitigation and adaptation. This therefore calls for the recognition of older adults as vital agents of change and empowering them through inclusive development policies, programs, and initiatives. Future research should investigate the long-term impacts of inviting older adults into climate change mitigation efforts, and the barriers that may hinder their active engagement.

Building community resilience to extreme heat: Lessons learned from Spokane, WA community conversations

Abstract Heat is the primary cause of weather-related mortality in the United States. The 2021 Northwest heat dome highlighted this susceptibility. In Washington State, 159 excess deaths were attributed to the 7-day period of unprecedented extreme heat between June 26th and July 2nd. This impact was felt even in some of the more acclimatized parts of the state, like Spokane County, where 19 heat-related deaths were reported. As climate change increases the frequency, duration, and intensity of extreme heat events, creating and sustaining heat-resilient communities has become an urgent public health priority. On 6 June 2023, Gonzaga University, in partnership with the University of Washington, hosted the Spokane Extreme Heat Risk Intervention Stakeholder Synthesis Symposium. The goals of the symposium were to debrief from recent heat events, identify extreme heat risk reduction interventions used in the region, and characterize remaining practice-relevant research priorities. The symposium convened 45 stakeholders including representatives from local and state agencies, academia, and community-based and Tribal organizations. Symposium participants engaged in small group discussions using the World Café MethodTM. Notes from each discussion were coded using a content analysis approach. Symposium participants identified strengths, barriers to heat resilience, and solutions to reduce risk throughout the Spokane community. We present these findings by practice topic, including risk communication, intervention, collaboration, policy, and research. Additionally, we utilize the socio-ecological model as a conceptual framework to illustrate the complex interplay of factors that govern an individual’s experience of, and ability to respond to, extreme heat events. Given extreme heat’s impact on global public health, the methods used to increase community resilience in Spokane, WA, USA could be used by other communities worldwide to increase their own heat-resilience.

Empowerment of Community Groups to Realize Food Security

The general background food security is a critical global challenge that influences community well-being and development. The specific background in rural contexts, community empowerment is vital for addressing food security issues; however, the mechanisms and dynamics of such empowerment are often underexplored. The knowledge gap while existing literature emphasizes the importance of empowerment, there is a lack of detailed studies focusing on specific strategies that effectively enhance community resilience in food security. The aims this research aims to describe and analyze the empowerment of community groups in achieving food security, using a case study approach in a specific rural area. Results the study reveals that key indicators—authority, confidence and competence, trust, opportunities, responsibilities, and support—play significant roles in empowering community groups, leading to improved food security outcomes. The novelty this research introduces a comprehensive framework that interlinks these indicators, providing new insights into their collective impact on community food security initiatives. The implications emphasize the necessity for sustained support from local governments and active community participation, advocating for collaborative efforts to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of food security programs in rural communities. Highlights: Community empowerment is essential for achieving food security in rural areas. Key indicators for success include authority, trust, and support from local governments. A collaborative approach enhances the effectiveness of food security initiatives. Keywords: Community Empowerment, Food Security, Rural Development, Participatory Approach, Sustainable Agriculture

Intelligent vs. Cultural: Research on the path to improve the resilience of urban and rural community governance based on the AHP-FCE model

Community resilience is a core component of grassroots governance modernization, and community resilience shows different characteristics depending on the type of community. Existing research on community resilience mainly uses direct questionnaire data, relatively ignoring the differences in weights of various dimensions. Different categories of community resilience components play different roles in community resilience. Based on this, the study cited the logic of the AHP-FCE model and added objective data based on empowering resilience, thus making up for the model's shortcomings while giving full play to the model's advantages. The quantitative analysis of 353 questionnaires from five urban districts and five rural communities in the sample city was based on the community resilience evaluation model. In the current process of community resilience construction, there are typical problems of a lack of cultural resilience in urban community resilience construction and a need for more intelligent resilience in rural community resilience construction. The key to future community resilience construction is reconciling the relationship between cultural and intellectual resilience to solve the problem of targeting deviation in urban communities and rural community resilience construction. It is necessary to adhere to the spirit of “long-term construction” to build the cultural resilience of urban communities, implement the path of “digital empowerment” to make the intelligent resilience of rural communities, and adhere to the standard of “complete redundancy” to form an urban and rural community resilience governance mechanism gradually, and then Move towards more resilient urban and rural community governance and help realize the modernization of grassroots governance.

Оценка жизнестойкости сельских сообществ Ненецкого автономного округа

The concept of resilience is applied to complex social systems to describe the ability of a territory (or settlement) or local community to recover from external shocks. In this context, resilience complements the concept of sustainable development by revealing the mechanisms that enable systems to regenerate during crises. In recent decades, various approaches for assessing urban resilience, including that of Arctic cities in high-risk zones, have been developed in scientific literature. However, a comprehensive methodology for assessing the resilience of Arctic rural communities has not yet been fully developed or tested. The goal of this article is to assess the resilience of several rural communities in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (NAO), followed by their comparison and classification. Drawing on Russian researchers' experience in measuring the resilience of Arctic cities, the authors propose their own methodology for assessing the resilience of Arctic rural communities. This methodology involves measuring 11 resilience indicators, which are aggregated into a comprehensive resilience index (R-index). The R-index enables the ranking of Arctic rural communities by their resilience levels. In the course of the study, all surveyed rural communities were classified into four groups based on R-index values: 1) isolated communities with low resilience; 2) vulnerable communities prone to external shocks; 3) administrative centers of rural municipalities with moderate resilience; 4) large and stable rural communities. The primary differentiating factors among these communities include geographical location, transport links and logistics, the structure of local economies, and demographic resources. Overall, Arctic rural communities exhibit a high level of social capital. The novelty of this study lies in its application of the community resilience concept to Arctic rural areas, contributing to a deeper understanding of the factors that shape their development potential. Future research should expand the geographical scope of the study and conduct larger surveys to improve the accuracy and reliability of rural community resilience assessments.

Fostering resilient recovery: An intervention for disaster-affected teachers in Indonesia

Disasters leave survivors at heighted risk of negative psychological consequences. Teachers require post-disaster psychosocial support, given their added responsibility for supporting their students' recovery. However, alongside coping with their own mental health, teachers often lack training to support students psychologically. This study addresses this gap by detailing an intervention designed to foster resilient recovery among secondary school teachers in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, to enhance their ability to support both themselves and their students after a devastating earthquake/tsunami.Teachers (n = 37) from three disaster-affected schools participated in a one-day workshop exploring collective strengths and strategies to develop their own and their students’ post-disaster resilience, featuring the Tree of Life activity. Impact was evaluated using a pre-post intervention design. Findings from a three month follow up demonstrated significant improvements across various resilience-related measures, including personal resilience, community resilience, social support, adaptive coping strategies, psychological help seeking, earthquake anxiety, post-traumatic stress, complex post-traumatic stress and fatalism. Open-ended survey responses indicated that most teachers reporting subjective improvements in their own recovery and their capacity to support students psychologically. This study emphasises the importance of creating teacher interventions underpinned by disaster recovery theory, which offer practical skills to foster post-disaster psychosocial recovery. While the intervention exhibits promising initial results, future research would benefit from an evaluation using a randomised control group.

Bridging the Digital Divide: Enhancing Literacy and Inclusivity through DELP

ABSTRACTNorth Carolina Central University (NCCU) is dedicated to addressing the pervasive issues of digital inequality prevalent in Durham's underserved anchor communities through the Digital Equity Leadership Program (DELP) and NCCU's School of Library and Information Sciences (SLIS). DELP offers a holistic approach as its activities and initiatives encompass workforce development, technological access, and digital literacy training, leveraging its partnerships with local organizations. DELP fortifies communities through its holistic initiatives and adopts an innovative approach to fostering long‐term community resilience and adaptability in an ever‐growing digitized economy. DELP amplifies capacity building through multifaceted employability and economic growth approaches, laying the groundwork for a more equitable and sustainable future. DELP's core activities expose our community members to skills that support their financial, economic, health, and digital equity. By bringing together program partners and our resources, capabilities, and expertise in digital literacy, innovative remedies were created to reach deeper into the surrounding communities.