Exploring whole-community disaster resilience across a rural landscape

Purpose – Rural communities experience disasters differently than their more urban counterparts and tend to be more susceptible to natural disasters. Simultaneously, rural areas have smaller governments, less diversified economies and fewer financial reserves to manage emergencies than larger communities. As nearly half of the world’s population resides in rural communities that are increasingly prone to natural disasters, it is vital to understand what often-overlooked rural communities need for creating disaster resiliency as their needs may differ from urban contexts. Design/methodology/approach – We conduct a mixed-methods study employing an all-of-society approach in four rural communities with recent disaster experience in Montana, the United States. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data collected from local government officials, small business owners and residents in the region over the course of two years, we employ the community capitals framework (CCF) to identify key drivers of successful rural disaster recovery and resilience, from the perspective of local communities. Findings – Findings from this study suggest that building rural resilience to disasters requires a nuanced and community-specific configuration of resources. Our findings additionally point to a potentially missing element of the CCF, which has thus far been overlooked, as a key component of resilient rural communities. Originality/value – Limited research examines rural disaster resiliency, and even less considers it from the perspective of the community's own residents. This study's all-of-society approach centers local voices and identifies key lessons for disaster managers regarding what rural communities need to be more disaster resilient.