How to assess neighborhood resilience in the context of public health emergencies? Insights from an indicator assessment in Berlin-Neukölln, Germany

Manafa G, Schmitz T, Butler J, Roth A, Savaskan N, Walker B, Lakes T (2025)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2025

Journal

Cities & Health Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/23748834.2024.2440980

Abstract

Resilience focuses on strengthening communities to better prepare for future expected and unknown crises. Incorporating a resilience perspective into public health practice offers important benefits by addressing health issues in urban neighborhoods both in terms of prevention and response. However, few studies are available that quantify resilience in urban neighborhoods in a spatially explicit manner. The aims of this study are therefore to develop a health-related resilience indicator for the neighborhood-level in urban areas. We developed a composite indicator based on the Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities framework to capture health-related capacities and apply it to a case study in Berlin, Germany. Our key results are the composite resilience indicator for urban neighborhoods and the identification of spatial patterns of resilience in Berlin-Neukölln. The results provide insights into the advantages and challenges of incorporating resilience into public health practice, highlighting the importance of analyzing small-scale data to identify areas to target interventions effectively. Furthermore, we discuss conceptual and methodological challenges, including the definition of health-related resilience, indicator selection, and the balance between general and specific resilience. This study marks an important first step towards a resilience-focused approach in public health, opening new directions for future research.

Authors with CRIS profile

Blake Walker Professur für Geographie (Digitale Geographie / Kulturgeographie)

Involved external institutions

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin DE Germany (DE) Bezirksamt Neukölln von Berlin DE Germany (DE) Technische Universität Dresden DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Manafa, G., Schmitz, T., Butler, J., Roth, A., Savaskan, N., Walker, B., & Lakes, T. (2025). How to assess neighborhood resilience in the context of public health emergencies? Insights from an indicator assessment in Berlin-Neukölln, Germany. Cities & Health. https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2024.2440980

MLA:

Manafa, Georgianna, et al. "How to assess neighborhood resilience in the context of public health emergencies? Insights from an indicator assessment in Berlin-Neukölln, Germany." Cities & Health (2025).

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