The impact of social capital on perceived flood resilience across community typologies in megacities: Evidence from Beijing

Perceived flood resilience (PFR) refers to residents' subjective assessment of their community's capacity to respond to and recover from floods. Alongside established urban (UCs) and rural communities (RCs), transitional communities (TCs) have emerged as a distinctive yet underexamined form. This study examines whether and how the association between social capital (SC) and PFR varies across these three community types in Beijing, using a framework centered on the conversion efficiency of SC into PFR. Drawing on survey data from 363 flood-affected residents and employing one-way ANOVA and hierarchical regression with interaction terms, the study finds: (1) TCs exhibit the lowest baseline levels of both SC and PFR; (2) SC is positively associated with PFR net of sociodemographic controls; and (3) the SC–PFR association is significantly weaker in TCs than in UCs, while remaining positive and substantial across all community types. These findings call for differentiated resilience-building strategies, with targeted interventions to address the resilience gap in TCs.