Community resilience to flood hazards in Khyber Pukhthunkhwa province of Pakistan

In Pakistan, floods are recurrent phenomenon and cause heavy loss to human life, standing crops and property. Community resilience is widely used in disasters and natural hazards. This paper aims to measure community resilience of a flood prone area in Khyber Pukhthunkhwa province of Pakistan. The flood resilience indicators were first determined through extensive literature review. The primary data regarding flood resilience indicators and community resilience were then collected through questionnaires. The indicators selected in this study were given proper weights using a subjective assessment method that ultimately resulted in community resilience indices. A total of 280 households from three sample sites of Charsadda, Nowshera and Peshawar were selected through the simple random sampling technique for questionnaire survey. The results showed that the overall composite community resilience indices as well as the component community resilience indices were very low for all the three sites. This study, therefore, recommends improvement in social, economic, institutional and physical indicators of the communities through preparedness, awareness, structural and non-structural measures. The proposed measures will enhance resilience of the communities and they would be able to cope with the future flood hazards. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.