Factors Affecting Urban Resilience and Sustainability: Case of Slum Dwellers in Islamabad, Pakistan

Abstract

This study aims to determine and analyze the factors that are associated with urban resilience and sustainability for the slum inhabitants of Islamabad, Pakistan. This study will adopt a quantitative design to study the significance of factors that affect urban resilience and sustainability in Islamabad’s slums, Pakistan. The research method in this study will be a survey questionnaire that was filled by 365 respondents using simple random sampling techniques. To conduct structural equation modeling (SEM), this study will use SmartPLS 3.0 through which all the important results will be gathered that include convergent validity, reliability, factor loading, composite reliability, discriminant validity, R square, and path coefficients. The findings show that the factors that significantly influence urban resilience are geographic size (B = 0.395; p-value = 0.000 < 0.01), preparedness and foresight (B = 0.144; p-value = 0.019 < 0.05), and resource and financing (B = 0.213; p-value = 0.000 < 0.01). In addition, the results highlight that geographic size (B = 0.232; p-value = 0.000 < 0.01) and resource and financing (B = 0.096; p-value = 0.097 < 0.1) are significant to urban sustainability for the slum inhabitants in Islamabad, Pakistan. This study is limited to the geographical bounds of Islamabad, Pakistan, and specifically the slums. Therefore, it could be improved in the future by considering other cities in Pakistan, such as Karachi or conducting a comparative analysis between cities. This study considered a limited number of factors; therefore, further research could explore additional factors that affect urban resilience and urban sustainability.