Integrating Psychosocial Factors with Geospatial Analytics to Assess Community Climate Resilience

Abstract Conventional climate adaptation strategies emphasize infrastructure, hazard modelling, and ecosystem management while underestimating psychological processes that shape how communities perceive and respond to climatic risks. Cognitive appraisal, emotional attachment, and behavioural engagement fundamentally influence preparedness, adaptation, and recovery. This study introduces GeoPsyche Futures , an interdisciplinary framework that integrates psychological indicators with geospatial analytics to map community resilience in a holistic, human-centered way. A cross-sectional study among 648 residents in a flood-prone coastal neighbourhood of Visakhapatnam, India, combined validated psychosocial measures with participatory GIS mapping, exploratory factor analysis, spatial autocorrelation, and OLS/GWR modelling. Three resilience dimensions—cognitive, emotional, and behavioural—explained 83.2% of the variance (KMO = 0.84). Spatial patterns (Moran’s I = 0.36, p < 0.01) revealed clustered resilience dynamics, and regression analyses demonstrated that emotional and behavioural factors were stronger predictors of preparedness behaviours (R² = 0.64) than cognitive variables. The GeoPsyche Resilience Index (GPRI) further illuminated stratified resilience zones. These findings highlight the urgent need to integrate psychological insights into climate adaptation planning and contribute directly to SDGs 3, 11, and 13.