Community mosaic models – a tool for defining communities within disaster risk management

Community is hard to define, but understanding what constitutes a community is crucial for effective decision-making. This article presents the idea of the community mosaic model. The model offers a flexible and operative tool for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to identify and explore communities. A two-phase systematic literature review established the theoretical definition of community. Following this, the three parts of the community mosaic model were conceptualised. Finally, the mosaic model was tested with a working example of a community association called the La Brouck collective in Belgium. The article outlines a unique operative tool called the community mosaic model and how it can be applied in practice. Furthermore, the article highlights theoretical insights from the approach and how it can inform practice and policy around Disaster Risk Management (DRM). The community mosaic model helps operationalise the term “community”. It provides DRM experts (and potentially beyond) with a tool to identify community groups and explore why they exist in each context. The model could facilitate the development of fit-for-purpose engagement strategies, map adaptive governance structures, and inform policy, potentially enhancing community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM). The article could help to empower community-based disaster risk management.
The article defines an original operative tool as the community mosaic model and provides a working example of its application based on real-world experiences. Also, the researchers revised the proposed lifecycle stages of community groups to include the stage “decay”.