Factors Affecting Coastal Community Resilience

Abstract

Coastal fishing communities are highly vulnerable to recurring hazards associated with extreme weather events that can lead to severe environmental degradation, cause loss of livelihoods, and even threaten human lives. It is essential to develop coastal populations’ capacity to respond to and recover from such shocks. Community resilience has emerged as an important factor that enhances disaster response and recovery. This study uses primary data to examine community resilience amongst 528 households across three coastal districts in Kerala. Moderate community resilience was observed across these coastal districts, with less pronounced inter-district variations. The results further show that community preparedness and social capital are the strongest predictors of community resilience, followed by income diversification, education, and experiential factors such as age. The study advances the resilience literature by demonstrating that resilience is multidimensional, interaction-driven, and place-specific. The findings underscore the need for integrated, context-sensitive disaster risk reduction strategies that strengthen social networks, enhance preparedness, promote livelihood diversification, and expand educational opportunities to build resilient coastal communities.