Flood resilience measurement for communities: Using online data collection

This publication guides you through using the online survey functionality in steps 5-7 of the Flood Resilience Measurement for Communities (FRMC) process. The FRMC process is often part of a wider community disaster resilience programme and does not stand alone. Certain parts of the process such as project set-up and community engagement are meant in the wider sense of the community project, and not just about implementing the measurement using the FRMC.

The FRMC comprises two parts:

1. the Alliance’s conceptual framework for measuring community flood resilience, and an associated tool for implementing the framework in practice.
2. The second component of the FRMC – the tool – is a practical hybrid software application comprising an online web-based platform for setting up and analysing the process and a smartphoneor tablet-based app that can be used offline in the field for data collection.

Online survey functionality for household surveys, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews have been made available in the FRMC as an additional data collection option. It is important to note that conducting an online survey does not in any way replace community engagement, which is essential for the success of the FRMC process. Online surveys are a replacement for field worker in-person data collection; they are not a replacement for community engagement. Community engagement should begin long before any surveys are sent out because users need to have solid knowledge about the community in order to design a good survey. Remotely conducting an online survey is not the equivalent of community engagement.

Before deciding to use the online survey platform for household survey data collection you need to be able to answer ‘yes’ to the following questions:

• Will I get enough respondents to reach the minimum number of household surveys needed?
• Do I have access to enough community members’ email addresses or have a plan to get these?
• Do I have a plan to get individual survey links to community members? (See ‘How will you access community members’ email addresses?' below.)
• Do I know the target community well enough to be able to access a cross section of the population (people from different groups within the community)?
• Will the online respondents be able to answer the questions without any real-time support?
• Will I be able to prepare each respondent before they complete the survey, so they understand enough to be able to respond to the questions?
• Are online surveys culturally appropriate and a trusted means of gathering information?