Nepal is highly exposed to multiple natural hazards, ranging from landslides in the hill regions to floods in the Terai plains, with climate change exacerbating these risks. Recognizing that disaster impacts are amplified by socio-economic vulnerabilities, recent scholarship and policy emphasize community resilience as a pathway to sustainable risk reduction. This study applies the Community Disaster Resilience Index (CDRI), which assesses resilience across five dimensions; social, economic, physical, environmental, and institutional to 60 communities along the Karnali River Basin in Sudurpashchim Province. The sample includes 24 upstream in Achham District (hills) and 36 downstream in Kailali District (plains), covering urban and rural settlements. In addition to an unweighted baseline analysis, the study incorporates community-defined priority weights to examine the sensitivity of resilience profiles to local perceptions. Results show that overall resilience levels are moderate, averaging in the mid-2 to mid-3 range on a five-point scale, with only modest differences across categories. Hilly communities demonstrate stronger social and institutional cohesion, whereas plain communities score higher in economic and physical resilience. Urban–rural differences are minimal, reflecting convergence in service access and development investments. Importantly, upstream–downstream interdependencies link the two districts: land degradation in Achham can intensify flood risk in Kailali, while downstream flooding disrupts upstream markets. Governance analysis highlights Nepal’s post-2015 decentralization reforms, which empower municipalities to lead disaster risk reduction, though gaps remain in technical capacity, coordination, and resource allocation. Field interviews also emphasize the role of local ownership; active community organizations and sustained maintenance of infrastructure were strongly associated with higher resilience. Overall, the findings suggest that community resilience profiles are broadly similar, though context-specific strengths and vulnerabilities persist. Enhancing resilience requires integrated basin-wide management of the Karnali River, vertical and horizontal governance coordination, and external aid that strengthens rather than supplants local agency. These insights contribute to debates on local disaster governance and illustrate how bottom-up resilience building can align with global frameworks such as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Kato et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
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