Human dimension of urban flood risk and informal resilience in Peshawar, Pakistan

The study aimed to systematically assess community-level risk perceptions and informal resilience capacities concerning urban fluvial hazards within Peshawar, Pakistan. The research addresses the global acceleration of urban flood hazards, a phenomenon increased by unregulated urban expansion and anthropogenic climate change. Methodologically, the study adopted a qualitative inquiry and the study was framed in an Interpretive Phenomenological Approach, utilizing the Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) framework as its theoretical construct. The SES framework operationalizes the local context by integrating the core components of risk (hazard, vulnerability, and exposure) and resilience (defined by anticipatory, adaptive, and restorative capacities) within the paradigm of the human-environment relationship. Data collection employed a multi-modal strategy including nine Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), 15 Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), and five In-Depth Interviews (IDIs), all conducted via purposive sampling. The empirical data reveal that local conceptualizations of urban flooding are primarily attributed to shifts in precipitation regimes and a spectrum of anthropogenic interventions. These interventions include uncontrolled informal settlements (encroachment), faulty urbanization, elevated groundwater tables and deficiencies in critical infrastructure, with all factors being aggravated by pervasive governance deficits. The resultant vulnerability is characterized as multidimensional vulnerabilities extending across socio-economic, physical, environmental and motivational axes. Parallel to it, communities demonstrate emergent resilience mechanisms, specifically manifesting as self-organized early warning systems and adaptive structural modifications such as elevated building plinths. The study suggests that effective urban flood risk management necessitates a paradigm shift from the silos-based top-down governance model toward a holistic, risk-informed urban planning framework. Such transition requires support from institutional reforms and formalized community engagement to effectively use indigenous knowledge and local capacities, thereby adding the system’s inherent capacity to absorb, adapt and transform in response to hydrometeorological stressors.