Community resilience to natural disasters: A systemic review of contemporary methods and theories

Abstract

Due to global climate change, community resilience to natural disasters has become a high priority in environmental research. Academicians and practitioners from different disciplines and organizations include several dimensions to outline the process of building resilient communities. Although this research branch suffers from the lack of a shared theoretical and methodological consensus, many scholars publish research articles each year. Similarly, social scientists include diverse contextual humanitarian dimensions that are challenging to trace. Therefore, this study attempts to undertake a systematic review of the literature of the last 12 years (2010–2021) to outline the current trends in research methods, selected dimensions, and theoretical standpoints from the social perspective. This systematic observation of the literature identifies the recent trends in adopting research design, sampling design, and data collection techniques used for the research. The present review also traces the propensity of including major theoretical dimensions in the research. After identifying the contemporary trends in research, we find that a comprehensive multi-phase research model is necessary to initiate an effective policymaking in a specific socio-ecological context.

Keywords

• Community resilience
• Natural disasters
• Systematic review
• Social research
• Current trends
• Methods