Making sense of resilience planning and policy in the pursuit of sustainable development and disaster risk reduction

Socio-ecological resilience and community vulnerability to climate change impacts are temporally and spatially unique concepts. Spatial models at the county-level within the US Mississippi River basin over the past 20 years (1990-2009) were developed to explain losses associated with flooding events. We applied integrative indices, spatial clustering, and spatial regression models to estimate the role of planning and policy effort in disaster risk reduction and sustainable development. Results suggest that engaged social capital and social justice characteristics combined with local proactive planning and policy in place before a disaster result in lower disaster losses and serve to enhance community resilience. Further, while our findings are informed by a case study within the US, they are applicable to other less-developed regional and country contexts.