Published Paper Details:

Climate change is ubiquitous and it has been incrementally increasing in the past decades. The impact of climate change varies from place to place and over time. It ranges from an increase or decrease in average temperature to significant damage to the built environment or a partial or complete disruption of social, economic, and environmental systems. It is a fact that these cannot be prevented and can only be managed to minimize loss of life, property and other related consequences. Coastal areas are highly susceptible to climate change majorly sea level rise, storm surges, soil erosion, coastal flooding etc. that poses significant threat to physical, social, economic and environmental aspects of coastal communities. Comprehensive and long-term strategies for disaster management and climate risk adaptation are required instantly, wherein community resilience becomes a perfect synthesis of a dual-pronged approach. Current disaster policies are short term focused and ignore the long-term benefits of building resilient communities. Here the authors have tried to explain the significance of resilient communities in disaster reduction and adaptation by delving into the conjectural knowledge of resilience and allege that resilience has to be an integral part of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction. The authors have attempted to analyze the inherent resilience of Chellanam, a coastal panchayath of Ernakulum District in Kerala, South India which is one among the worst-hit soil erosion coast of India, taking into account its disaster profile, risks and subsequent recent initiatives that lets the community evolve and plough on.