Untapped capacity of place-based peer-to-peer resource sharing for community resilience

During and after a disaster, people share resources with family, friends and neighbors. Conventional top-down disaster relief often overlooks critical resources within communities. This study explicitly models place-based peer-to-peer (P2P) resource sharing and evaluates its impact on community resilience using survey data from two Seattle neighborhoods (Laurelhurst and South Park). Under a 5-day isolation, place-based P2P sharing reduces community resilience loss by 13.4–100% across ten essential resources. On average, 22–44 social ties per household support an 80% sharing rate of surplus resources. Strong ties are 1.5–3 times more effective than weak ties at securing needed resources for survival. Findings suggest place-based P2P sharing can complement government-led efforts, and the methodological framework is transferable to other urban communities.