Evaluation of Social Resilience in Urban Areas of Isfahan

Social resilience refers to the capacity of a society to cope and adjust with challenges and changes. It relates to such social characteristics as age, gender, disability, socio-economic status, and social capital. The field of this study is the city of Isfahan that holds substantially high rates of unemployment and crime, despite its long and rich historical and socio-cultural backgrounds. This study aims to examine whether and how the rate of social resilience varies across the fifteen areas of this city. Methodologically, the present research employs a descriptive-analytic approach. It uses secondary data provided mainly through the 2011 population census. The data have been analyzed on the basis of TOPSIS technique and TOPSIS SOLVER software.
The results of this analysis illustrate that the area 3 holds the highest rate of social resilience. This tends be mainly associated with a relatively larger number of religious-historical places and health clinics, transportation access, Internet services and safety. Then, the areas 5 and 1 hold the next highest ranks in terms of social resilience. The opposite applies to the areas 2 and 6 that indicate their lowest rate of social resilience, which can be explained by substantial prevalence of unemployment and crime in these areas.