Reimagining Community Engagement: A Social Network Driven Approach to Flood Resilience

Community Engagement (CE) is crucial for building flood resilience and empowering communities to participate actively in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. However, many existing CE approaches neglect key social dimensions, such as inclusivity, social vulnerabilities, and community-driven strategies. This oversight often limits community ownership and reduces effectiveness. This research critically examines the social drivers of community engagement in flood resilience, emphasising the need for a Social Network approach to strengthen social connections, enhance participation, and foster sustained resilience. A review and synthesis of existing literature, spanning disaster risk management, flood resilience, social networks, behavioural science, and community engagement, identifies key internal and external drivers. The main internal drivers include social cohesion, leadership, education and local knowledge. Key external drivers include government support, partnerships, and technological resources. The findings highlight the importance of integrating internal and external drivers through Social Network Analysis (SNA) to foster foster cohesion, adaptability, and sustainability in community engagement. The research provides valuable theoretical insights for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers to improve collaboration, resource allocation, and community-led engagement. It advances knowledge by analysing key social drivers and introducing SNA as a framework to integrate these drivers for more effective community engagement. Future research will develop a theoretical framework and test the applicability of SNA in various contexts.