Pathways to resilience: adaptive governance in disaster management systems

The increasing impacts of climate change necessitate the urgent development and implementation of policies and governance frameworks to increase disaster resilience. Adaptive governance has emerged as a potential strategy for regulating social-ecological systems amidst prevailing uncertainties and changes in environmental conditions. This research asks how adaptive governance can be effectively leveraged to enhance disaster resilience in practice. A systematic literature review was conducted via the PRISMA approach, with a focus on the intersections and synergies between adaptive governance and disaster resilience. A thematic analysis and qualitative synthesis were performed on the selected articles. The study reveals that adaptive governance fosters disaster resilience through improved information flow, increased cooperation, and flexible decision-making. However, it faces significant obstacles such as institutional restrictions, funding shortages, and challenges in stakeholder engagement. Opportunities lie in leveraging regional expertise, integrating advanced technologies, and promoting cross-scale cooperation. Despite its potential, the implementation of adaptive governance requires nuanced and context-specific strategies due to the complexity of social-ecological systems. It necessitates the integration of local knowledge, investment in capacity development, and the establishment of collaborative initiatives. Our findings confirm that adaptive governance offers a flexible, participatory pathway to resilience – but real-world implementation requires addressing institutional constraints and fostering enabling conditions. Practitioners and policymakers should consider adaptive governance as a foundational strategy for disaster management, allocating resources to capacity building and encouraging multilevel cooperation.