An Integrated Multidimensional Resilience Index for urban areas prone to flash floods: Development and validation.

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Urban Planning
• Disaster Risk Management

Background:

• Flash flood risk reduction is crucial for sustainable development amidst global change.
• Current index-based resilience assessments often overlook multidimensional aspects (social, economic, environmental, physical, institutional, cultural).
• External validation of regional resilience indices in urban flash flood areas is limited due to data constraints and event variability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a regional Integrated Multidimensional Resilience Index (IMRI) for urban flash flood-prone areas.
• To address the limitations of existing resilience assessment methods by incorporating multiple dimensions.
• To provide a robust tool for understanding and enhancing urban resilience to flash floods.

Main Methods:

• Development of the Integrated Multidimensional Resilience Index (IMRI).
• Internal validation using the Monte Carlo method, including uncertainty and sensitivity analyses.
• Characterization of regional resilience patterns using Latent Class Cluster Analysis (LCCA).

Main Results:

• The IMRI effectively captures the multidimensional nature of urban resilience.
• Most resilient areas exhibit high social and cultural resilience; least resilient areas need enhanced social and institutional resilience.
• Validation confirmed the IMRI's robustness with low bias and high probability of stable resilience categories.
• LCCA identified five distinct regional spatial patterns of urban resilience.

Conclusions:

• The developed IMRI provides a comprehensive approach to assessing urban resilience to flash floods.
• The findings highlight specific dimensions requiring strengthening in different urban areas.
• The methodological framework supports targeted resilience-building strategies for diverse urban contexts.