Background and Objective: Khuzestan Province has always faced numerous challenges in the field of water resources due to its climatic and geographical conditions. These challenges, known as water stresses, can have widespread impacts on various aspects of social life and reduce the resilience of society to crises. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between water stresses and social resilience in Khuzestan Province using the structural equation modeling (SEM) method.
Methodology: The present study, with a statistical population of 4,710,509 citizens of Khuzestan Province, selected and examined a sample of 386 people using the Cochran formula. The research instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire with confirmed content (face) and construct validity and acceptable composite reliability. The data were analyzed using correlation analysis and structural equation modeling methods using SPSS and Smart PLS software.
Results and Findings: The results of structural equation modeling indicate a strong and significant relationship (p<0.05) between water stress indices and social resilience. In other words, these findings show that with increasing water stress, social resilience in the studied community decreases. In addition, the model fit indices also show that the data are well consistent with the conceptual model of the research and the model has the necessary fit. This strengthens the validity and reliability of the modeling results and confirms that the proposed model is able to correctly explain the relationship between the variables under study. Finally, comparing the correlation coefficients shows that the environmental index and then the institutional index have the strongest relationship with the social resilience index and water stress. Also, the results of the PLS test showed that among the water stress indicators, the environmental indicators with a score of 24.828, the economic indicators with a score of 21.762, and then among the social resilience indicators, the institutional index with a score of 21.677 and the social index with a score of 20.145 ranked first to fourth, respectively, and this indicates the impact of water stress indicators on social resilience in Khuzestan Province.