Building Safety and Resilience in Mountain Communities: A Community-Centric Risk Mitigation Planning, Design, and Implementation in Afghanistan

Afghanistan’s mountain communities are increasingly exposed to floods, landslides, avalanches and rockfalls as a result of climate change, environmental degradation and socio-economic fragility, while practical and sustainable models for community-centred risk mitigation remain limited. In this study, a comprehensive practice-led framework for building safety and resilience in mountainous Afghanistan is presented based on 22 mitigation projects implemented across five high-risk provinces by the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat (AKAH). The national hazard scape is first characterised using EM-DAT disaster trends, which indicate the dominance of hydro-meteorological hazards in driving human and economic losses. The physical, ecological and socio-institutional constraints shaping mountain hazard mitigation strategies are subsequently outlined, with emphasis placed on terrain instability, climatic extremes, resource limitations and governance challenges. A structured eight-step community-centric methodology anchored in participatory Hazard, Vulnerability and Risk Assessment (HVRA), risk-informed planning, and blended structural and Nature-based Solutions (NbS) is then described. Scientific tools such as GIS-based hazard mapping and numerical modelling are integrated with indigenous knowledge to support site prioritisation, design optimisation, and locally owned implementation, operation and maintenance. Observation and results indicate that approximately 12.5 km2 of land, including 2.95 km2 of agricultural land, more than 550 households, over 4,900 people and 58 critical infrastructure units are safeguarded through these interventions. Scenario-based hazard modelling demonstrates that rockfall impact area is reduced by 47% and population at risk by 92% in Bezokh village, while flood inundation extent is reduced by 55% in Baghlan following construction of a protective river wall. NbS feasibility assessments conducted at 12 sites achieve scores of up to 74% against the IUCN Global Standard, indicating strong ecological suitability, technical performance and community relevance. Recurring implementation challenges are identified, including weak regulatory frameworks, limited availability of risk data, capacity constraints and logistical barriers in remote mountain settings. However, a consistent causal relationship is observed in which evidence-based HVRA, co-designed hybrid mitigation measures, community-led quality assurance and sustained operation and maintenance collectively lead to measurable reductions in hazard exposure and strengthened resilience. It is concluded that this integrated, community-centric and risk-informed model provides a scalable and transferable pathway for climate-resilient infrastructure development and disaster risk reduction in fragile mountain environments within Afghanistan and comparable regions worldwide.