Past research has demonstrated that disasters are continuing to escalate in frequency and magnitude worldwide, representing a key concern for the global community. The inherent risk of climate change and its relationship to natural disasters, is closely aligned to the prediction that recent records of the unprecedented scale and frequency of disasters is a trend that is set to continue. Understanding and responding to the increasing risk posed by disaster events has become a key concern for disaster managers. An emerging trend within literature, acknowledges the need to move beyond a state of coping and reinstatement of the status quo, towards incremental adaptive change and transformational actions for long-term sustainable development. As such, a growing interest in research concerns the understanding of the change required to address ever increasing and unpredictable disaster events. Capturing transformational capacity and resilience, however is not without its difficulties and explains the dearth in attempts to capture this capacity.
Applying a mixed methods case study approach, this research assesses how awareness and perceptions of risk, influence the mobilization of resources and capacity that drive community resilience. This research forms part of a wider on-going PhD study, comprising the development of a theoretical resilience framework, informed by an extensive literature review and pilot study. Applying this framework by grounding and testing it within the case study area of Cumbria in England, permits the identification of community resources and capacities that build community resilience. Further, it assesses how levels of social capital and connectedness influence the mobilization of these resources and capacities that drive transformational resilience. Developing an understanding of this interplay between the harnessing of community capacities and social connectedness, allows communities to benefit from critical reflection and lessons learned, thus enhancing their ability to move beyond a reinstatement of the status quo and instead bounce back after the next disaster. Thus, this paper seeks to expand the existing body of knowledge by enhancing the awareness of risk and resilience in post-disaster affected communities, by empirically investigating indicators of community level capacity building and resilience actions that facilitate transformational resilience during the recovery and reconstruction phase of a flood disaster.