Redefining Resilience: A Regional Approach to Climate Adaptation Assessment

With the increased severity of climate change, coastal settlements like Halishahar, and Chattogram, are at the forefront of increasing environmental stresses, where adaptation is warranted on the grounds of resilience. The coastal settlements are increasingly vulnerable to cyclones, flooding, and salinity intrusion due to climate change. In this study, the climatic resilience of Halishahar was measured in terms of a scientific approach to assess absorptive, adaptive, and transformative capacity. A mixed-method research design with qualitative and quantitative data from 30 respondents from different socio-economic strata based on purposive sampling, was adopted for extensive inquiry. Resilience indexing, interviews, and structured questionnaires were employed for the measurement of resilience in five dimensions, namely social, ecological, economic, physical, and institutional. Findings from this study, indicate poor absorptive capacity (48.95%) with functional emergency response systems but fragile health infrastructure and financial resilience. Adaptive capacity is weak (36.50%) with vulnerable livelihood diversification, deficient conservation of biodiversity, and inadequate institutional monitoring. Transformative capacity is also below standard at 36.83%, an indicator of insufficient massive investments in climate research and innovation, green energy, and sustainable agriculture. The key finding on the Halishahar climate resilience index is 40.76%, reflecting long-term resilience acute planning deficits. Results reveal policy intervention imperatives in disaster preparedness, sustainable livelihood, and institutional capacity development. Climate governance, community mobilization, and adaptation infrastructure development need to be improved in building resilience. The study offers an evidence-based intervention that can be replicated in other climate-vulnerable coastal settlements and offers practical lessons for policymakers and researchers.