Understanding a community’s capacity for responding to and recovering from
natural disasters has been an emphasis of recent disaster research. In particular, scholars
have called for the development of methodologies for measuring a location’s resilience
to disasters. While several studies propose methodologies and frameworks for measuring
disaster resilience in the USA, few studies examine and measure resilience in international
settings. This study applies Cutter et al.’s (Glob Environ Change 18:598–606,
2008) Disaster Resilience of Place (DROP) model in order to examine disaster resilience
at the provincial level in Thailand. Guided by the DROP model, 25 variables were
selected from the 2000 and 2010 Thai Census and 2005–2006 Statistical Yearbook that
served as indicators of resilience. Using a principal component analysis, a set of baseline
metrics reflecting dimensions of community capacities that influence disaster resilience
was created. This analysis resulted in four dimensions describing resilience: household
assets, economic assets, community/response assets, and institutional assets. Using the
derived index, a correlation analysis was then conducted to examine differences in rural
and urban disaster resilience. While the results of the model suggest that disaster resilience
is generally higher in the more urbanized areas, we also note that communities
located in rural areas in Thailand may not necessarily be less resilient to the impacts of
disasters and call for studies conducted at both the macrolevel (provincial level) and at
microlevel (village or neighborhood level) to get a nuanced understanding of community
resiliency