Coastal Community Resilience in the Indian Ocean Region: A Unifying Framework, Assessment, and Lessons Learned

The Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 2004 raised awareness around the globe of the potential devastating impacts of tsunamis. Extreme hazard events, such as tsunamis and storms, as well as many other coastal hazards—episodic and chronic—pose increasing threats to coastal communities throughout the world. The U.S. Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System Program, funded by the United States Agency for International Development, worked with partner agencies and organizations throughout the Indian Ocean region to identify essential elements of resilient coastal communities and to develop benchmarks and assessment methods to evaluate the capacity of coastal communities to reduce risk, accelerate recovery to disasters, and adapt to changes resulting from both episodic and chronic hazards. This paper presents the process and results of developing, testing, and application of this coastal community resilience framework and assessment methods in coastal communities and other stakeholders in the region. The resulting framework integrates community development, coastal management, and disaster management is recommended for adoption by local and national governments to mitigate the severity of future potential disasters and lessen the impacts of chronic hazards in this region.