The impact of social capital on the resilience of flood-prone communities: The case study of northern Iran

Climate change-induced disasters, such as floods, are threatening coastal communities, particularly vulnerable communities in developing countries, around the world. While various tools and measures are under examination for building and enhancing resilience capacity in order to improve the preparedness of these communities for future events, social capital has been shown to influence how local communities can be resilient using their social connectedness. The purpose of this study was to investigate the function of social capital in informing and improving the resilience capacity process of coastal communities in northern Iran. This study used a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods and analyzed a number of social capital indicators in the study area in a field survey using questionnaires and techniques of inferential statistics (i.e., Pearson correlation and T-test). For this reason, 376 residents from the towns that sustained the largest human and financial losses were chosen for examination. The results showed that bonding capital has a considerable effect on the community's resilience capacity. Moreover, some social capital criteria, including respect for the rights of the neighbors, existence of public green space, children's playground, and planting trees, are the most important criteria in developing capacities for enhancing resilience among the residents of the community under study. This shows that developing community resilience through social ability and trust will be more successful than doing so by just raising awareness of hazard threats. This study recommends that further efforts be made to increase the capability of both formal and informal communal institutions. The structural adjustments that are necessary, on the other hand, are difficult.