Re-designing Social Impact Assessment to enhance community resilience for Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Action and Sustainable Development

Abstract

Enhancing disaster risk reduction (DRR) and community resilience are fundamental for sustainable development. However, cultural and political-institutional barriers hinder governments from progressing towards sustainability. We propose a redesign of social impact assessment (SIA) to make it more applicable to the field of regional and urban planning, and we discuss the role SIA can have in enhancing community resilience to achieve DRR and sustainable development in localities. We argue that, to convert SIA into a tool that can inform regional recovery and development planning, a rethinking of SIA and of the role of SIA practitioners is needed. We therefore expound the SIA Framework for Action and we enhance it to be a community-based process focussed on informing regional policies and plans and decisions about the projects to be included in such plans. Application of the SIA Framework for Action will help governments overcome the barriers to DRR and sustainable development.