A Composite Resilience Index (CRI) for developing resilience and sustainability in university towns

Abstract

Globally, most higher educational institutions can no longer house their students within their campuses due to the increased number of enrolments and the unavailability of land for spatial expansion, especially in urban areas. This leads to studentification which negatively impacts university towns. Developing resilience against the negative impacts of studentification will make university towns more sustainable. However, there is no existing community resilience index designed for that purpose. Thus, this study develops a composite resilience index for university towns, using Akoka, a university town in Lagos, Nigeria, as a case study. The composites of the index were determined by prioritizing online user-generated content mined from Twitter between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2021 using artificial intelligence, while the elements of resilience and risk reduction were developed through the Delphi and analytic hierarchy process. The research outcomes showed that the physical, economic, social, and cultural criteria subjected to comparisons represented ≥70% of the total weights. These criteria made up the outcome indicators, while the integrated community-based risk reduction program model was adopted for the process indicators. Both outcome and process indicators formed the localized composite resilience index for Akoka, Lagos, Nigeria. This proposed composite resilience index would help the town to assess and build resilience against the negative impacts of studentification and provide a methodology for other university towns to create theirs using similar methods.