Resilience of municipalities: prioritisation of threats based on the example of the Czech Republic

Municipal resilience is a currently emphasised topic and refers to the general ability of cities and municipalities to specifically and substantively face various threats, risks, and potential damages that disrupt the desired continuity in their socio-economic development and declared approach to environmental protection. In particular, in the design, setting up, and management of a resilient system, it is necessary to determine the relevance and importance of the various threats that may affect the municipality or city. The article aims to define and subsequently prioritise the threats and risks that municipalities and cities consider to be relevant in the contemporary socio-economic system, according to their severity. A sub-objective is to also determine the substantive groups of threats according to their importance. This prioritisation of threats is based on the analysis and the confrontation of the results from the primary research conducted in 2024 in the form of a questionnaire survey among the municipalities of the Czech Republic and a meeting of experts, a focus group. 284 Czech municipalities (5%) participated in the online questionnaire survey, while the focus group results reflect the opinion of 18 experts. To enhance the relevance of the results, the article includes an analysis of the results using confidence intervals, Mauchly's test of sphericity, and tests of agreement of the mean values of answers. The biggest threats identified include the ageing population or youth outflow, systemic inconsistent financing of municipalities, and undesirable environmental effects related to climate change and its impacts.