IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pclm00/0000496.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social resilience research on climate-related hazards: Trends, accomplishments and shortcomings

Author

Listed:
  • Christine Eriksen
  • Gregory L Simon

Abstract

Two calls by research and policy institutions internationally inform this paper. The first is a need to better accommodate local social-ecological conditions through more fine-grained data collection and analysis. The second is to increase the level of community engagement in studies of social resilience to climate change. In this paper, we assess progress towards these aspirations by examining and describing research that explore community resilience to climate-related hazards. More specifically, we critically appraise how this growing body of research engages with the communities and places that are the subject of these studies. Using the Web of Science Core Collection database, we conducted a scoping review of 647 articles that aim to understand lived-experiences of climate-related hazards through a place- or community-based focus. Our findings reveal that only 140 articles (21%) met our inclusion criteria by meaningfully engaging with the communities and places being studied, while also developing grounded strategies to improve social resilience to climate-related hazards. Key findings from the reviewed literature also highlight: the social attributes emphasised within the studies, the research methods most frequently employed, the scale the strategies are most often aimed at, and the diversity and frequency of proposed strategies to improve social resilience to climate-related hazards. Collectively, these findings highlight key trends, accomplishments and shortcomings in social resilience research on climate-related hazards. Two major recommendations from our review emerge. First is a need for more widespread grounded engagement during data collection phases with populations impacted by climate-related hazards to increase researcher sensitivity to the specific needs of at-risk communities. Second is the development of strategies within published research that are more tailored, and thus more locally beneficial and equitable, so that key insights can be applied in place-specific contexts and by a range of people across diverse social attributes and networks.

Suggested Citation

  • Christine Eriksen & Gregory L Simon, 2025. "Social resilience research on climate-related hazards: Trends, accomplishments and shortcomings," PLOS Climate, Public Library of Science, vol. 4(4), pages 1-13, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pclm00:0000496
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pclm.0000496
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000496
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/climate/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000496&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000496?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lea Berrang-Ford & A. R. Siders & Alexandra Lesnikowski & Alexandra Paige Fischer & Max W. Callaghan & Neal R. Haddaway & Katharine J. Mach & Malcolm Araos & Mohammad Aminur Rahman Shah & Mia Wannewit, 2021. "A systematic global stocktake of evidence on human adaptation to climate change," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 11(11), pages 989-1000, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lena I. Fuldauer & Scott Thacker & Robyn A. Haggis & Francesco Fuso-Nerini & Robert J. Nicholls & Jim W. Hall, 2022. "Targeting climate adaptation to safeguard and advance the Sustainable Development Goals," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Alfred Olfert & Gérard Hutter, 2025. "Strategic Communication and Evaluation to Improve the Capacities of Local Administration for Climate Change Adaptation: A Case Study on Dresden, Germany," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 61-79, March.
    3. Jiao, Xiyu & Pretis, Felix & Schwarz, Moritz, 2024. "Testing for coefficient distortion due to outliers with an application to the economic impacts of climate change," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 239(1).
    4. Lam Thi Mai Huynh & Jie Su & Quanli Wang & Lindsay C. Stringer & Adam D. Switzer & Alexandros Gasparatos, 2024. "Meta-analysis indicates better climate adaptation and mitigation performance of hybrid engineering-natural coastal defence measures," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.
    5. Ashrita Saran & Sabina Singh & Neha Gupta & Sujata Chodankar Walke & Ranjana Rao & Christine Simiyu & Suchi Malhotra & Avni Mishra & Ranjitha Puskur & Edoardo Masset & Howard White & Hugh Sharma Waddi, 2022. "PROTOCOL: Interventions promoting resilience through climate‐smart agricultural practices for women farmers: A systematic review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(3), September.
    6. Till Baldenius & Nicolas Koch & Hannah Klauber & Nadja Klein, 2023. "Heat increases experienced racial segregation in the United States," Papers 2306.13772, arXiv.org.
    7. Gil-Clavel, Sofia & Wagenblast, Thorid & Filatova, Tatiana, 2023. "Farmers’ Incremental and Transformational Climate Change Adaptation in Different Regions: A Natural Language Processing Comparative Literature Review," SocArXiv 3dp5e, Center for Open Science.
    8. Theodoros Chatzivasileiadis & Ignasi Cortes Arbues & Daniel Lincke & Jochen Hinkel & Theodoros Chatzivasileiadis & Richard S.J. Tol, "undated". "Actualised and future changes in regional economic growth through sea level rise," Working Paper Series 0324, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    9. Ingrid Arotoma-Rojas & Lea Berrang-Ford & James D Ford & Carol Zavaleta-Cortijo & Paul Cooke & Victoria Chicmana-Zapata, 2024. "An intercultural approach to climate justice: A systematic review of Peruvian climate and food policy," PLOS Climate, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(9), pages 1-23, September.
    10. repec:osf:socarx:3cqvn_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Daniel Puig & Neil W. Adger & Jon Barnett & Lisa Vanhala & Emily Boyd, 2025. "Improving the effectiveness of climate change adaptation measures," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 178(1), pages 1-15, January.
    12. Zagaria, Cecilia & Schulp, Catharina J.E. & Malek, Žiga & Verburg, Peter H., 2023. "Potential for land and water management adaptations in Mediterranean croplands under climate change," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    13. Andrew Russell & Paul Sayers, 2022. "Assessing Future Flood Risk and Developing Integrated Flood Risk Management Strategies: A Case Study from the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-14, October.
    14. Nasir Abbas Khan & Ashfaq Ahmad Shah & Muhammad Atiq Ur Rehman Tariq & Ataharul Chowdhury & Uttam Khanal, 2022. "Impact of Farmers’ Climate Risk Perception and Socio-Economic Attributes on Their Choice of ICT-Based Agricultural Information Services: Empirical Evidence from Pakistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-19, August.
    15. Kythreotis, Andrew P. & Hannaford, Matthew & Howarth, Candice & Bosworth, Gary, 2024. "Translating climate risk assessments into more effective adaptation decision-making: the importance of social and political aspects of place-based climate risk," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 122155, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Jan Petzold & Lukas Mose, 2023. "Urban Greening as a Response to Climate-Related Heat Risk: A Social–Geographical Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-16, March.
    17. Olivia Serdeczny & Marina Andrijevic & Claire Fyson & Tabea Lissner & Inga Menke & Carl-Friedrich Schleussner & Emily Theokritoff & Adelle Thomas, 2024. "Climatic risks to adaptive capacity," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 1-16, January.
    18. Livia Rasche & Johannes Katjana & Kerstin Jantke & David Uchezuba & Uwe A. Schneider, 2025. "Exploring the Plausibility of Inoculated Cowpeas as a Climate Adaptation Strategy for Namibian Smallholder Farmers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-13, April.
    19. Deng, Nana & Wang, Bo & Wang, Zhaohua, 2023. "Does targeted poverty alleviation improve households’ adaptation to hot weathers: Evidence from electricity consumption of poor households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    20. Tom Spencer & Alexandre K. Magnan & Simon Donner & Matthias Garschagen & James Ford & Virginie K. E. Duvat & Colette C. C. Wabnitz, 2024. "Habitability of low-lying socio-ecological systems under a changing climate," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 177(1), pages 1-19, January.
    21. Ashrita Saran & Sabina Singh & Neha Gupta & Sujata Chodankar Walke & Ranjana Rao & Christine Simiyu & Suchi Malhotra & Avni Mishra & Ranjitha Puskur & Edoardo Masset & Howard White & Hugh Sharma Waddi, 2024. "Interventions promoting resilience through climate smart agricultural practices for women farmers: A systematic review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(3), September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pclm00:0000496. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: climate (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/climate .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.