Use of multi-criteria decision analysis to define social resilience to disaster: the case of the EU LIFE PRIMES project

Community resilience to disaster is a concept that deals with different meanings depending on diverse disciplines and so far more attention has been given to its structural aspects. Only recently the social dimensions have sparked interests and its assessment is still a challenge dealing with the integration of quantitative variables and qualitative judgments. Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) can provide a consistent methodology to deal with this aspect, creating indeed, the background for ranking and evaluating the effect of potential decision and policy strategies aiming to enhance the social resilience. In this work, we proposed a study for defining social resilience through the application of the Promethee method. Five social macro-indicators, characterized by specific sub-indicators, were analyzed in ten Italian case study areas involved in the EU LIFE PRIMES Project. The information for the definition of the sub-indicators were carried out through the delivering of anonymous questionnaires to a sample of citizens in each interested area. The approach provided both a classification of communities in term of social resilience and the individuation of the most important indicators influencing the final ranking. This method can be suggested as an effective tool for studying the various dimensions characterizing social resilience.