International Journal of

ADVANCED AND APPLIED SCIENCES

EISSN: 2313-3724, Print ISSN: 2313-626X

Frequency: 12

line decor
  
line decor

 Volume 13, Issue 8 (August 2026), Pages: 136-146

----------------------------------------------

 Original Research Paper

Adaptive capacity, vulnerability, and community resilience in selected relocated coastal barangays in a Philippine municipality

 Author(s): 

Glenda Sullano-Peña *

 Affiliation(s):

Department of Development Studies, College of Economics, Management, and Development Studies, Cavite State University, Cavite, Philippines

 Full text

    Full Text - PDF

 * Corresponding Author. 

   Corresponding author's ORCID profile:  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9106-2623

 Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

 
https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2026.08.013

 Abstract

Building resilience has become increasingly important as coastal communities cope with the effects of climate change. This study examined the association between adaptive capacity and vulnerability and community resilience in four relocated coastal barangays in the Philippine municipality of Basey, Samar. Cochran's formula was used to determine a sample size of 360 participants through stratified random sampling. Descriptive statistics (weighted mean, frequency, and percentage distribution) were used to determine the type and degree of adaptive capacity and vulnerability in relation to community resilience. The findings indicate that the four relocated barangays have great adaptive potential but exhibit varying degrees of vulnerability. Despite being located in coastal areas, the communities demonstrate very high resilience. A slight positive correlation was found between adaptive capacity and community resilience, while no significant correlation was found between vulnerability and community resilience. These findings suggest that while adaptive capacity and vulnerability are important determinants of community resilience, other factors, such as cultural capital, political capital, and topographical position, also merit consideration. Furthermore, sustainable livelihoods that reflect the adaptive capacity and vulnerability of local people are essential for long-term community sustainability.

 © 2026 The Authors. Published by IASE.

 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

 Keywords

Adaptive capacity, Community capital, Community resilience, Hazard exposure, Vulnerability

 Article history

Received 12 January 2026, Received in revised form 10 June 2026, Accepted 18 August 2026

 Acknowledgment

The author acknowledges the financial support provided by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for her Ph.D. dissertation, from which this article was developed. The author also thanks her dissertation adviser and advisory committee at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) for their valuable guidance and feedback. 

 Compliance with ethical standards

 Ethical considerations

Participation was voluntary, and written informed consent was obtained from all participants. Participants were informed of the purpose and procedures of the study, potential risks and benefits, and their right to withdraw at any time without penalty. Participant identities were kept anonymous, and confidentiality of the collected data was maintained.. 

 Conflict of interest: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

 Citation:

Sullano-Peña G (2026). Adaptive capacity, vulnerability, and community resilience in selected relocated coastal barangays in a Philippine municipality. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 13(8): 136-146

  Permanent Link to this page

---------------------------------------------- 

 References (35)

  1. Akamani K and Hall TE (2019). Scale and co-management outcomes: Assessing the impact of collaborative forest management on community and household resilience in Ghana. Heliyon, 5(1): e01125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e01125   [Google Scholar] PMid:30662971 PMCid:PMC6325084
  2. Basu R, Chaudhary S, Deval C, Sayeed A, Herndon K, and Griffin R (2024). Estimating disaster resilience of Hurricane Helene on Florida counties. ArXiv Preprint ArXiv:2410.02071. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2410.02071   [Google Scholar]
  3. Bronfman NC, Nikole GM, Castañeda JV, Cisternas P, and Repetto PB (2024). Relationship between social vulnerability and community resilience: A geospatial study in the context of natural disasters. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 112: 104774. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2024.104774   [Google Scholar]
  4. Budría S, Betancourt-Odio A, and Fonseca M (2025). Resilience in the wake of disaster: The role of social capital in mitigating long-term well-being losses. American Behavioral Scientist. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642251394553   [Google Scholar]
  5. Cardona OD, van Aalst MK, Birkmann J et al. (2012). Determinants of risk: Exposure and vulnerability. In: Field CB, Barros V, Stocker TF, and Dahe Q (Eds.), Managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance climate change adaptation: Special report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change: 65–108. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.   [Google Scholar]
  6. Carvalho P and Spataru C (2024). Co-designing a just resilience balance scorecard with experts in islands and coastal cities. Climate Risk Management, 43: 100577. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2023.100577   [Google Scholar]
  7. Cutter SL, Barnes L, Berry M, Burton C, Evans E, Tate E, and Webb J (2008). A place-based model for understanding community resilience to natural disasters. Global Environmental Change, 18(4): 598-606. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2008.07.013   [Google Scholar]
  8. Daniel L, Mazumder RK, Enderami SA, Sutley EJ, and Lequesne RD (2022). Community capitals framework for linking buildings and organizations for enhancing community resilience through the built environment. Journal of Infrastructure Systems, 28(1): 04021053. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)IS.1943-555X.0000668   [Google Scholar]
  9. Elrick-Barr CE, Thomsen DC, Preston BL, and Smith TF (2017). Perceptions matter: Household adaptive capacity and capability in two Australian coastal communities. Regional Environmental Change, 17: 1141-1151. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-016-1016-1   [Google Scholar]
  10. Ensor J, Tuhkanen H, Boyland M, Salamanca A, Johnson K, Thomalla F, and Mangada LL (2021). Redistributing resilience? Deliberate transformation and political capabilities in post-Haiyan Tacloban. World Development, 140: 105360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105360   [Google Scholar]
  11. Gallopín GC (2006). Linkages between vulnerability, resilience, and adaptive capacity. Global Environmental Change, 16(3): 293-303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2006.02.004   [Google Scholar]
  12. Graveline MH and Germain D (2022). Disaster risk resilience: Conceptual evolution, key issues, and opportunities. International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 13: 330-341. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13753-022-00419-0   [Google Scholar]
  13. Guimaraes R, Mechler R, Velev S, and Chapagain D (2025). The effect of community resilience and disaster risk management cycle stages on morbi-mortality following floods: An empirical assessment. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 25(10): 3803-3826. https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-25-3803-2025   [Google Scholar]
  14. Gyawali S, Tiwari SR, Bajracharya SB, and Skotte HN (2020). Promoting sustainable livelihoods: An approach to postdisaster reconstruction. Sustainable Development, 28(4): 626-633. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2013   [Google Scholar]
  15. Hutagalung SS (2023). Adaptive capacity in the implementation of disaster response village programme in Indonesia: Literature review. Jamba: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies, 15(1): 1-7. https://doi.org/10.4102/jamba.v15i1.1470   [Google Scholar] PMid:37795237 PMCid:PMC10546220
  16. Imperiale AJ and Vanclay F (2021). Conceptualizing community resilience and the social dimensions of risk to overcome barriers to disaster risk reduction and sustainable development. Sustainable Development, 29(5): 891-905. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2182   [Google Scholar]
  17. Jamshed A, Rana IA, Mirza UM, and Birkmann J (2019). Assessing relationship between vulnerability and capacity: An empirical study on rural flooding in Pakistan. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 36: 101109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2019.101109   [Google Scholar]
  18. Jank-Humann A (2024). The (in)vulnerable: The futures of the Halligen in the North Sea in the face of climate change. European Journal of Futures Research, 12: 12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40309-024-00234-4   [Google Scholar]
  19. Jones L and Tanner T (2017). ‘Subjective resilience’: Using perceptions to quantify household resilience to climate extremes and disasters. Regional Environmental Change, 17: 229-243. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-016-0995-2   [Google Scholar]
  20. Lanlan J, Sarker MNI, Ali I, Firdaus RR, and Hossin MA (2024). Vulnerability and resilience in the context of natural hazards: A critical conceptual analysis. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 26: 19069-19092. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-023-03440-5   [Google Scholar]
  21. Laurien F, Hochrainer-Stigler S, Keating A, Campbell K, Mechler R, and Czajkowski J (2020). A typology of community flood resilience. Regional Environmental Change, 20: 24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-020-01593-x   [Google Scholar]
  22. Lin BC and Lee CH (2024). Assessing the efficacy of adaptive capacity-building strategies in earthquake-prone communities. Geomatics, Natural Hazards and Risk, 15(1): 2380908. https://doi.org/10.1080/19475705.2024.2380908   [Google Scholar]
  23. Lv Y, Sarker MNI, and Firdaus RR (2024). Disaster resilience in climate-vulnerable community context: Conceptual analysis. Ecological Indicators, 158: 111527. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2023.111527   [Google Scholar]
  24. Myagmarsuren A and Batkhuyag M (2021). The role of education in strengthening the resilience of pastoral systems to climate change adaptation. In the Proceedings of the Environmental Science and Technology International Conference (ESTIC 2021), Atlantis Press, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia: 1–6. https://doi.org/10.2991/aer.k.211029.001   [Google Scholar]
  25. Pandey R, Jha SK, Alatalo JM, Archie KM, and Gupta AK (2017). Sustainable livelihood framework-based indicators for assessing climate change vulnerability and adaptation for Himalayan communities. Ecological Indicators, 79: 338-346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2017.03.047   [Google Scholar]
  26. Panzarella F, Turcanu C, Abelshausen B, and Cappuyns V (2023). Community capitals and (social) sustainability: Use and misuse of asset-based approaches in environmental management. Journal of Environmental Management, 329: 117122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.117122   [Google Scholar] PMid:36577303
  27. Rana IA and Routray JK (2018). Integrated methodology for flood risk assessment and application in urban communities of Pakistan. Natural Hazards, 91: 239-266. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-017-3124-8   [Google Scholar]
  28. Spoon J, Gerkey D, Rai A, and Chhetri RB (2023). Contextualizing patterns in short-term disaster recoveries from the 2015 Nepal earthquakes: Household vulnerabilities, adaptive capacities, and change. Ecology and Society, 28(1): 40. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-13892-280140   [Google Scholar]
  29. Tinoco N (2023). Post-disaster (im)mobility aspiration and capability formation: Case study of Southern California wildfire. Population and Environment, 45: 4. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-023-00416-5   [Google Scholar] PMid:37091045 PMCid:PMC10107593
  30. Tönnies F (2001). Community and civil society. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511816260.006   [Google Scholar]
  31. Xiong A and Li Y (2024). The role of social capital in building community disaster resilience–empirical evidences from rural China. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 110: 104623. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2024.104623   [Google Scholar]
  32. Yusoff S and Yusoff NH (2021). Building social resilience after the 2014 flood disaster. Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 29(3): 1709-1722. https://doi.org/10.47836/pjssh.29.3.13   [Google Scholar]
  33. Zaman MO and Raihan MMH (2023). Community resilience to natural disasters: A systemic review of contemporary methods and theories. Natural Hazards Research, 3(3): 583-594. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nhres.2023.05.003   [Google Scholar]
  34. Zhai L and Lee JE (2024). Investigating vulnerability, adaptation, and resilience: A comprehensive review within the context of climate change. Atmosphere, 15(4): 474. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos15040474   [Google Scholar]
  35. Zhou H, Wang JA, Wan J, and Jia H (2010). Resilience to natural hazards: A geographic perspective. Natural Hazards, 53: 21-41. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-009-9407-y   [Google Scholar] PMCid:PMC10406327