A socio-ecological resilience index (SERI) framework for multi-hazard exposure: Insights from the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman

چکیده مقاله

Understanding the resilience of coupled socio–ecological systems (SES) is critical for addressing the escalating risks faced by coastal regions under climate change. This study develops and applies a Socio–Ecological Resilience Index (SERI) framework, integrating 61 socio-economic, ecological, climatic, hydrological, geological, and maritime indicators into a multi-layered composite index. Unlike prior approaches that assessed social or ecological resilience in isolation, our framework captures their bidirectional interactions, producing a spatially explicit and transferable tool. Application to the Persian Gulf (PG) and Gulf of Oman (GO), a geostrategic but underexamined region exposed to 11 major hazards, reveals clear disparities: PG counties show consistently higher resilience (mean SERI = 0.551) compared to GO counties (mean SERI = 0.475). Notably, 94 % of Bandar Abbas's area falls into the low-resilience class, contrasting with the high resilience of Parsian and Bandar Lengeh. These results highlight a critical knowledge gap in existing frameworks, which often neglect the coupled socio-ecological dynamics shaping vulnerability under compound hazards. By advancing an integrated methodology and demonstrating its utility in a data-scarce but high-risk setting, the study offers both methodological innovation and empirical novelty. The findings provide actionable insights for evidence-based coastal management, including targeted interventions in vulnerable counties, ecological restoration, and adaptive, transboundary governance to reduce resilience disparities across coastal systems. © 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.