Open research questions in Disaster Management and Resilience

What the literature leaves open

• However, the recovery of productive economic activities, professional psychosocial services, housing assistance, and large-scale reconstruction remains constrained by inconsistent data, limited budgets and authority, damaged access routes, topographical conditions, weather-related risks, limited human resources and equipment, lengthy administrative processes, and the suboptimal dissemination of public information and provision of evacuation sites.

  Peran Pemerintah Nagari dalam Penanganan Pascabencana di Nagari Matua Mudiak Kabupaten Agam · 2026 · DOI

• For example: “58% of deaths from natural-hazard related disasters occur in the top 30 most fragile states, and the numbers of people affected are often unreported or vastly under reported.

  Weathering the storm: Inclusive education and crisis preparedness · 2026 · DOI

• However, a significant limitation of this work is its lack of empirical validation, as the proposed framework has not yet been tested or applied in a real-world disaster context to substantiate its practical effectiveness. Why is social work under-recognised by the disaster management sector within Australia and what can be done about this? Australian Journal of Emergency Management, 40(1), 6–14.

  Reimagining social work responses to disaster-induced housing loss: Harnessing ubudlelane · 2026 · DOI

• This study has several important limitations that must be considered in qualifying the findings and outcomes. The courses and data collection were drawn from a single state which may not be representative of other states, reducing generalizability. Threats vary widely across the United States. In the portion of the United States where this project occurred (the mid-Atlantic region), the roster of threats included topics (i.e. hurricanes and floods) that may be rare or not exist in some parts of the country. Conversely, threats like heat domes, tornadoes, and droughts are rare in this 18 W. Pelfrey region. There are other extremely rare event threats, such as earthquakes or nuclear failures, which were not addressed in this study. A key variable in this study was self-assessed. Participants were asked if they represented urban, sub-urban, or rural localities. Precise population definitions were not provided to differentiate between these categories. Instead, participants were asked to self-define these designations and they may not have shared uniform definitions. Data were collected following three emergency preparedness courses address- ing pre-disaster issues, navigating disasters, and recovery. Information provided may have influenced perceptions. Participants self-selected to attend the classes and may therefore have preconceived notions regarding emergency preparedness. Although most participants attended all three courses, some did not attend every course. Localities were free to send participants and they varied widely across elected and appointed positions. While all participants work for local government, the nature of assignments, responsibilities, years of experience, and authority varied widely across the population. The total number of participants was 58. While this is not a small sample, it represents a small fraction of the locally elected and appointed officials in the state where the project was conducted. Generalizing these findings to other officials, in this region or any other, could be problematic. Recent disasters may have influenced perceptions. A major disaster, such as Hurricane Helene (2024), may have altered participants views. Smaller, local di- sasters may have impacted some participants perceptions. A disaster well outside the region, such as a high profile cyberattack or man-made event that happened else- where in the United States or the world could have changed views. These confounds plague emergency management research and are very difficult to control. Survey constructs were pre-defined which limits potential responses from participants. This is especially true for the investment dimension which had four pre- defined categories. There may have been other categories which were not made available to participants that would have garnered responses. This is a deficit of survey research and represents a validity limitation. While these are serious limitations, with negative generalizability impacts, findings still warrant consideration given the paucity of research tapping percep- tions of locally elected and appointed officials.

  Locally Elected and Appointed Officials Disaster Priorities: Perceptions of Preparedness and Risk · 2026 · DOI

• Future research on this topic should pursue more representative population frames and secure additional perspectives, ideally from multiple states and diverse popu- lation settings. Findings were predicated on survey data – qualitative data (either Officials Disaster Priorities 19 focus groups or interviews) would provide much more detail on participant per- ceptions. Interview questions addressing budgetary decision-making processes as an artifact of jurisdiction type and local government style would be especially inter- esting. Data collection utilized a one-shot case study design. Follow-up data collec- tions, perhaps 12 months and 24 months after the original data collection would be very informative. Threats and priorities evolve – tracing that evolution and securing the catalysts for perceptual change would be interesting and advance the knowledge on the actualization of emergency preparedness at the local level.

  Locally Elected and Appointed Officials Disaster Priorities: Perceptions of Preparedness and Risk · 2026 · DOI

• Disasters triggered by natural hazards disrupt affected communities and pose complex challenges across many aspects, including public health. With this, the current literature paid significant attention to examining the multifaceted impacts of disasters on public health. Although formal health systems directly support disaster response, we argue that comprehensive health resilience extends beyond these systems, ensuring accessible, high-quality, and equitable health services while safeguarding individuals from health risks. Despite the criticality of this agenda, exploring the diverse indicators that can measure the full extent of the consequences of disasters on public health remains a gap in the domain literature. Thus, this work performs a systematic literature review to determine those indicators and provides a framework that allows policy- and decision-makers to achieve economies of scale and scope in crafting corresponding response strategies. Utilizing the PRISMA statement, 60 journal articles that highlight different indicators of resilience in public health amid natural hazard-induced disasters were obtained. A content analysis of these articles uncovered 42 unique indicators. Additionally, guided by the six building blocks of health systems from an established framework, the identified indicators were classified into 12 themes, encompassing crucial elements such as leadership and governance, health financing, medical 184 S. S. Evangelista et al. products, including vaccines and technologies, health information management systems, health workforce, and health service delivery. The examination of the 12 themes in relation to the health system building blocks was also discussed. Through thematic analysis, the study mapped out how each indicator is associated with each theme. These aspects underscore the crucial connections between the themes and indicators, highlighting the importance of interpreting each indicator within its associated theme to ensure meaningful analysis and informed decision-making. The themes and corresponding indicators could facilitate a more nuanced approach to the multifaceted dimensions of health impacts, promote the development of proactive measures to mitigate risks associated with hazard-induced disasters, and support efficient resource allocation to areas with pressing needs. The indicators identified in this review could be used to identify hotspots, benchmark best practices, and facilitate the design of analytical models to measure the aggregate health resilience of communities to disaster-induced impacts. Furthermore, by structuring indicators around key dimensions of health-related resilience, the contribution of this study moves beyond descriptive compilation and provides a foundation for operationalizing community resilience in the context of health impacts, informing the development of composite indices and comparative assessments across communities. Nevertheless, the findings of this work are not free from limitations. First, it is important to note that the results of this study are limited to the keywords used in the systematic review search. In line with this perspective, future research could validate the findings by incorporating additional search keywords associated with the public health resilience indicators. Similarly, broadening the search scope might involve extending the timeline considered (i.e., 2012–2022). Second, the resulting 60 articles in the systematic literature review depend on the inclusion and exclusion criteria embedded in the PRISMA statement. Hence, future studies may relax specific restrictive criteria to enhance coverage and evaluate a larger number of pertinent articles. Third, although Google Scholar provides a broader database of research articles, the search results depend on its algorithm, which may mean that other relevant articles do not appear. Also, databases like Scopus and Web of Science can limit the search to include only articles published in respected journals, books, or proceedings. Fourth, mapping the identified themes may be restricted to the six building blocks of health systems in the Olu (2017) model. Using other frameworks in future studies may yield a different set of themes, while the indicators remain the same. Fifth, the resulting indicators may be used as inputs to performance dashboards of governments and policy-makers for the health resilience of their respective communities.

  Compilation of Resilience Indicators for the Impact of Disasters Triggered by Natural Hazards on Public Health · 2026 · DOI

• Yet research on disaster learning for young children remains limited, and gamification has rarely been examined in this area with sufficient conceptual precision.

  Gamification Framework for Early Childhood Flood Disaster Preparedness in Indonesia: A Systematic Literature Review · 2026 · DOI

• using https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-016-2170-y of National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. (2021). Situational reports on major typhoon events in the Philippines. NDRRMC. Pfeffer, J., & Salancik, G. R. (1978). The external control of organizations: A resource dependence perspective. Harper & Row. Porio, E. (2016). Climate change vulnerability and adaptation in Metro Manila and other urban regions. Asian Journal of Social Science, 44(1–2), 1–28. Republic of the Philippines. (2010). Republic Act No. 10121: Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010. Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines. Tierney, K. (2012). Disaster governance: Social, political, and economic dimensions. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 37, 341–363. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-020911-095618 United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. (2015). Sendai framework for disaster risk reduction 2015–2030. United Nations.

  A Sendai Framework-Based Assessment of Disaster Risk Management in the Municipalities of Northern Samar: Basis for Enhancing the Local DRRM Plan · 2026 · DOI

• individuals. Page 15 of 41 strategies operate at levels, reflecting both International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy individual, household, and collective Findings: Adaptive Strategies and Resilience Practices insights into informal workers’ adaptive capacities and contributions to urban resilience. selection bias in favour of workers with stronger social networks. Additionally, the crossand strategies evolve dynamically, suggesting that longitudinal research could provide more occupation site, and dates, enabling readers to assess the contextual grounding of resourcefulness and constraints imposed by marginalisation. Five key themes emerged from (Makoko, Oshodi, and Lagos Island) reveals that informal workers in Lagos employ diverse adaptation and mobility, collective organisation and advocacy, and hybrid formal-informal the data: livelihood diversification and flexibility, social networks and mutual support, spatial responses. Each theme is presented with evidence from interviews, attributed by pseudonyms, sectional research design captures perspectives at specific points in time, whereas experiences adaptive strategies in response to climate-related disasters, particularly flooding. These robust insights into resilience trajectories. Despite these limitations, the findings offer valuable Analysis of interviews, focus groups, and observational data from the three Lagos communities 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy that provide fallback options during disruptions. Livelihood diversification takes multiple market conditions, and disaster impacts. This flexibility represents both strategic adaptation diversification as an adaptive strategy. Informal workers described maintaining multiple forms. Some workers maintain spatially dispersed activities across different market locations Her account illustrates how informal workers strategically maintain diverse income streams A dominant theme across all participant groups was the importance of livelihood income sources that could be activated or de-emphasised in response to seasonal patterns, make an income from processing. You cannot depend on just one thing in Lagos” (Personal “I sell vegetables in the market, but I also process palm oil that I can sell when the market floods. My sister and I share a grinding machine, so when the market is closed, I can still Amina, a 38-year-old market trader in Oshodi, explained: and necessity driven by income volatility and precarity. interpretations.

  Reimagining resilience: informal workers and adaptive strategies for post-disaster urban futures in Lagos, Nigeria · 2026 · DOI

• To address the gaps identified in this study and maximize the impact of AidTrack, the following recommendations are proposed: 1. Enhance Training and Capacity Building. Conduct regular orientation sessions, hands-on workshops, and refresher training for barangay officials and local agency personnel. Emphasize practical exercises on QR code generation, eligibility verification, inventory management, and AI- assisted features to ensure smooth adoption and confident system use. 2. Continuously Improve System Features. Regularly update and refine key functionalities, including QR verification, AI-driven prioritization, and the chatbot assistant, based on user feedback. Incorporate usability testing and feature enhancements to maintain reliability, responsiveness, and user satisfaction. 3. Promote Inter-Agency Collaboration and Data Integration. Facilitate real-time sharing of data across barangays and MSWD personnel. Strengthen communication channels and establish protocols for coordinated operations, reducing duplication and improving resource allocation. 4. Ensure Data Accuracy and Integrity. Maintain up-to-date household profiles, inventory records, and distribution logs. Implement routine audits and validation procedures to support informed decision-making, transparency, and accountability in relief operations. 5. Monitor, Evaluate, and Adapt. Conduct periodic assessments of system performance, user engagement, and operational outcomes. Use these insights to identify areas for improvement, guide future development, and ensure AidTrack continues to align with evolving disaster management needs. 6. Plan for Sustainability and Scalability. Develop strategies for long-term system maintenance, including technical support, software updates, and resource allocation. Explore the potential to scale IJFMR260379207 Volume 8, Issue 3, May-June 2026 9 International Journal for Multidisciplinary Research (IJFMR) E-ISSN: 2582-2160 ● Website: www.ijfmr.com ● Email: [email protected] AidTrack to neighboring municipalities or additional disaster response programs, ensuring broader community benefit. Implementing these recommendations will enhance the Municipality of Santo Tomas’ capacity for efficient, equitable, and transparent disaster relief operations, ultimately strengthening resilience and community trust in local disaster management systems.

  AidTrack: An Intelligent Relief Distribution and Tracking System for Disaster Response Management · 2026 · DOI

• Future studies could address these limitations by incorporating multi-year datasets, additional social media platforms, and finer-scale temporal analysis to better capture dynamic patterns of public response during extreme weather events. Finally, the analysis is limited to a single year (2022) and one geographic region, restricting the generalizability of the findings to other time periods or hazard types.

  Mapping Social Media Response to Crisis Events: A Spatial Deviation Analysis of Public Reaction on X and Tornado Paths in Oklahoma · 2026 · DOI

• The main limitation of the study is that the data were generated between 2021 and 2023, several years after the torrential floods occurred. Consequently, the information relating to experiences before and during the disaster comes from accounts based on memo- ries and reinterpretations after the event, processes that may be subject to distortions inherent in memory. Therefore, memory bias may affect the reconstruction of the role of social capital by reinterpreting the contribution of certain actors, relationships, or forms of support in light of subsequent experiences. To enhance the validity of the find- ings, we employed several triangulation strategies. First, we included a diverse range of participants (e.g., community leaders, residents, state actors, NGOs) to contrast perspectives across different social positions. Second, we combined multiple data generation strategies— individual and group techniques, as well as participant observation— together with documentary analysis (e.g., institutional documents and press sources), thereby enabling cross-verification of key events and processes. As with any qualitative case study, the objective is analytical gen- eralization, not statistical generalization; therefore, the findings are contextual and cannot be directly extrapolated to other communities or types of disasters. Furthermore, the evidence presented is based exclusively on qualitative data; therefore, the results of this study do not account for causal relationships but rather interpretations that must be tested in further future research.

  Social capital and community resilience in disaster contexts: a multiple case study from Colombia · 2026 · DOI

• Several limitations should be acknowledged. First, the cross-sectional design cannot establish causal relationships or track changes over time. Second, the single-case study design limits generalizability to other municipalities. Third, self-reported preparedness may not correspond to objective measures. Fourth, informal settlements may be to sampling challenges.

  Urban Planning Challenges and Community Resilience: An Empirical Assessment of Disaster Vulnerabilities in Bungoma Municipality · 2026 · DOI

• analyses. Global Environmental Change, 16(3), 253–267. social–ecological for Gupta, R., & Chen, L. (2021). Fragmented responses: The consequences of ineffective disaster management.

  Urban Planning Challenges and Community Resilience: An Empirical Assessment of Disaster Vulnerabilities in Bungoma Municipality · 2026 · DOI

• The findings of this study highlight key priorities for enhanc- ing the effectiveness of local government units (LGUs) in respond- ing to public health emergencies. Strengthening participatory governance mechanisms, particularly in resource allocation, is crucial to promote stakeholder engagement and ensure transpar- ency in decision-making processes. Equally important is the need for LGUs to enhance their communication strategies to support more effective policy dissemination and improve public under- standing during crisis situations, where timely and accurate infor- mation is essential. In addition, prioritizing investments in digital governance systems can significantly improve service accessibility, efficiency, and overall responsiveness, enabling LGUs to better address the demands of public health emergencies.

  Local governance effectiveness in crisis management: evidence from a first-class municipality in the Philippines · 2026 · DOI

• This study has several limitations that point to directions for future research. First, the cross-sec- tional design limits causal inference; while our mediation model is theoretically grounded, longitu- dinal or quasi-experimental studies are needed to establish causal direction and examine whether more resilient communities attract better governance over time. Second, the reliance on self-reported perceptions, while appropriate for measuring constructs such as trust and perceived capacity, could be complemented by behavioral or observational meas- ures in future work. Third, in fragile settings, even “institutionalized” practices may remain shallow. Using Brink- erhoff’s (2000) framework, we distinguish institutionalization (budget lines, contingency plans in district codes) from donor-driven projectization (one-off trainings, NGO-led early warning). Our items intentionally measured the former, but we concede that in Lower Juba’s context, what appears institutionalized may still depend heavily on external support. Balanggoyo (2024) exemplifies this challenge, as his evaluation of DRRM implementation in specific institutional contexts reveals that substantive embedding of disaster risk reduction requires sustained commitment beyond initial pol- icy formulation. Fourth, the sample, while carefully drawn, represents a single region in Somalia; comparative studies across multiple fragile contexts would enhance generalizability. Fifth, future research should explore the specific mechanisms through which conflict insecurity undermines DRR institutionali- zation, for example, through ethnographic observation of how the presence of armed groups shapes administrative routines at the district level. 377 Institutionalizing Disaster Risk Reduction in Fragile States Local Governance Capacity, Conflict Insecurity, and Community Resilience in Lower Juba, SomaliaInternational Journal of Disaster Risk Management • Vol. 8. No. 1 • We also emphasize that this study demonstrates perceived relationships among governance, DRR, and resilience as reported by household respondents, not definitive institutional performance outcomes such as reduced mortality or asset loss during actual hazard events. Future research link- ing perceptual measures to observed outcomes is needed. Finally, we acknowledge that the author’s prior professional experience in Lower Juba, while val- uable for contextual interpretation, could introduce interpretive bias. The research team mitigated this through: (a) separation of the author from data collection, (b) use of local enumerators unaware of the author’s prior role, (c) member checking of qualitative interpretations with community mem- bers not involved in the survey, and (d) explicit documentation of how prior knowledge shaped (and did not shape) each stage of the research. This positionality statement follows best practices for research in conflict-affected settings.

  Institutionalizing Disaster Risk Reduction in Fragile States: Local Governance Capacity, Conflict Insecurity, and Community Resilience in Lower Juba, Somalia · 2026 · DOI

• Future research will focus on the Stage 3 (LIK integration) artefact, utilising ML to optimise the interaction between the trust index and behavioural profiles.

  From narrative to machine-readable logic: Formalising and validating local indigenous knowledge for rural early warning systems · 2026 · DOI

• While the paper identifies 'active hope' and participation in physical repair as therapeutic mechanisms that re-empower wildfire survivors, empirical investigation is needed on how to systematically integrate these psychosocial dimensions—specifically emotional restoration and ecosystem recovery participation—into engineering-centric disaster response protocols to measure therapeutic efficacy.

  Living with loss: environmental grief, solastalgia, and young adults’ experiences after wildfires · 2026 · DOI

• The study indicates that psychological indicators of trust and grief should be integrated into disaster management protocols as early warning signals of social vulnerability, but no operational framework exists for translating environmental grief assessment into actionable institutional accountability mechanisms within regional planning processes for Mediterranean basin fire risk.

  Living with loss: environmental grief, solastalgia, and young adults’ experiences after wildfires · 2026 · DOI

• A multi-cohort comparative design pairing the current urban-educated sample with rural, land-dependent populations is recommended to isolate how 'social position' specifically moderates the interaction between material loss and psychological trauma following wildfires, providing empirically robust evidence for generalizable climate adaptation strategies.

  Living with loss: environmental grief, solastalgia, and young adults’ experiences after wildfires · 2026 · DOI

• The sample is limited to predominantly educated, urban-centric young adults with relatively high social capital in Turkey; stratified sampling must include rural communities and individuals with lower educational backgrounds to determine how social vulnerability moderates the experience of solastalgia and disenfranchised grief in wildfire-affected populations.

  Living with loss: environmental grief, solastalgia, and young adults’ experiences after wildfires · 2026 · DOI

• The study's cross-sectional design prevents causal inference about temporal trajectories of environmental grief and solastalgia; a longitudinal study tracking the evolution of ecological grief from emerging adulthood through later life stages is needed to establish how psychological trauma from wildfire loss develops and resolves over time.

  Living with loss: environmental grief, solastalgia, and young adults’ experiences after wildfires · 2026 · DOI

• The Qualtrics survey questions were simple and approved by a subject-matter expert in DIAL but were not tested with DIA officials prior to survey administration, which may have been a drawback of the study.

  The impact of district administration leadership characteristics on community resilience: Evidence from Kampong Thom provincial administration in Cambodia · 2026 · DOI

• This study was confined to finding the impact of district administration leadership characteristics on community resilience in only the Kampong Thom provincial administration in Cambodia, with 111 research samples included.

  The impact of district administration leadership characteristics on community resilience: Evidence from Kampong Thom provincial administration in Cambodia · 2026 · DOI

• Originality/value This study calls for further research into these geographical disparities and the long-term impacts of corporate responses, urging a reevaluation of strategies to ensure balanced and sustained disaster support, particularly as global natural disasters are expected to increase due to climate change.

  Big tech and natural hazards: disaster response patterns of Fortune Global 500 ICT MNCs in developing countries · 2025 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Disaster Management and Resilience

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• An Adaptive Regional Input‐Output Model and its Application to the Assessment of the Economic Cost of Katrina · Risk Analysis · 2008 · 542 citations
• DISASTER CRISIS MANAGEMENT: A SUMMARY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS · Journal of Management Studies · 1988 · 492 citations
• Gender, Risk, and Disaster · International Journal of Mass Emergencies & Disasters · 1996 · 334 citations
• Building community resilience in a context of climate change: The role of social capital · AMBIO · 2022 · 286 citations
• Citizens’ Perceptions of Flood Hazard Adjustments · Environment and Behavior · 2012 · 256 citations
• The effect of natural disasters on economic activity in US counties: A century of data · Journal of Urban Economics · 2020 · 255 citations
• Resilience of children in disasters: A multisystem perspective · International Journal of Psychology · 2020 · 215 citations
• Disaster Resiliency of U.S. Local Governments: Insights to Strengthen Local Response and Recovery from the <scp>COVID</scp>‐19 Pandemic · Public Administration Review · 2020 · 209 citations

Most recent work

• Same Storm, Different Boat: Student Homelessness & Natural Disaster · The Urban Review · 2026
• Beyond Blueprints: Exploring the influence of social science factors on engineers’ flood infrastructure design decisions · PLoS ONE · 2026
• Recovery, Resilience, and Healing: Exploring Grief Experiences of Black Families Impacted by the Eaton Fire in the Altadena and Pasadena Area · Journal of Sociology and Social Work · 2026
• Multiple crises · Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography · 2026
• Reimagining resilience: informal workers and adaptive strategies for post-disaster urban futures in Lagos, Nigeria · International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy · 2026
• Photovoice Study on Children’ Risk Perception of Disaster in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia · Child & Youth Services · 2026
• Disasters and the need for Glocal Social Work · China Journal of Social Work · 2026
• Effect of Natural Disasters on Youth Mental Health: A Systematic Review · Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma · 2026
• Weathering the storm: Inclusive education and crisis preparedness · Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs · 2026
• Disaster management technology and approaches: a focus on heterogeneous systems · Environment Systems & Decisions · 2026

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