Operationalizing "resilience" for disaster risk reduction in mountainous Nepal

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to describe empirical research intended to fill the perceived gap in practical guidance methodologies for assessing resilience. Design/methodology/approach - To do so, an interdisciplinary team of researchers studied landslide risk in four different communities of Central and Eastern Nepal using a case study approach. Two case studies on flood-affected communities were developed for comparison sake in more urban areas. Methods combined qualitative participatory approaches to develop indicators of resilience as well as a household survey and focus group discussions for collecting data on the indicators. Findings - What the research results demonstrate is a relatively straightforward and simple means for obtaining data on the state of a community's resilience as a relatively simple "snapshot" of resilience at one period in time, assuming that resilience is an outcome that can be improved over time with the "right" set of interventions. Research limitations/implications - The main limitation of this research is that it focussed mainly on outcome indicators; although some process indicators of resilience were identified (i.e. grazing management practices, skills training, organizational skills and learning through education), these need to be more comprehensive and validated through community consultations. Originality/value - The paper provided data and a straightforward methodology for measuring resilience and has thus contributed to the literature on this topic, while providing practical ideas for future research on resilience building measures and indicators.