Quantitative Approach for Evaluating the Community Resilience along Eastern Coastal City in Fujian Province

Abstract

Increasing number and intensity of hurricanes cause significant impact on local communities every year. The ability to measure the resilience level of community is increasingly seen as a key step in disaster risk reduction. The identification of indicators that are meaningful for evaluating resilience remains a challenge. The main purpose of this work is to promote the understanding of the multidimensional nature of disaster resilience and provide a set of indicators for measuring the resilience at the city level in Fujian province of China. A set of indicators covering built environment, electricity and economic resilience was identified by cointegration test. Then, the well-chosen indicators are combined into a composite index to reflect the spatial-temporal resiliency level of coastal communities across geographical boundaries and the changing process over time. The proposed quantitative model can be used by planners and policy makers to achieve the performance goal of typhoon resilience of effected community and develop strategies for long-term sustainability of regions.