Deconstructing Community Disaster Resilience: The “State of the State” of Major Initiatives and

Approaches

Duane A. Gill Department of Sociology—Oklahoma State University

Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Native Studies—University of Alberta

Liesel Ashley Ritchie Natural Hazards Center

University of Colorado—Boulder

Presentation at the 12th Annual Canadian Risk and Hazards Network Symposium

November 4, 2015

Background

The concept of resilience

An overview of resilience activities—initiatives, programs, basic and applied research activities

Efforts to measure community resilience in the U.S.

National Institute of Standards and Technology Community Resilience Planning Guide for Buildings and Infrastructure Systems

Considerations in moving forward

“the capacity to withstand loss, the capacity to prevent a loss from occurring in the first place, and the capacity to recover from a loss if it occurs” (Buckle 2006:91).

The magnitude of shock that the system can absorb and remain in a given state.

The degree to which the system is capable of self-organization.

The degree to which the system can build capacity for learning and adaptation.

U.S. Presidential Policy Directive PPD-21, dated February 12, 2013, defines resilience as follows:

“The term ‘resilience’ means the ability to prepare for and adapt to changing conditions and withstand and recovery rapidly from disruptions. Resilience includes the ability to withstand and recover from deliberate attacks, accidents, or naturally occurring threats or incidents.”

The U.S. research community has increasingly focused on resilience-related lines of inquiry. For example…

National Academy of Sciences Reports

National Academies Resilient America Roundtable

Myriad research centers around the country, with a variety of funding sources

National Science Foundation

In reviewing various activities associated with community resilience, we found…

An opportunity to consider these—ranging from initiatives to programs to basic and applied research and community efforts using a typology:

Policy driven Organization driven Community driven

…These are not mutually exclusive

There are a number of international efforts focused on community resilience, for example…

United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR)

Rockefeller 100 Resilient Cities

Zurich Alliance Flood Resilience Program

Major U.S.-wide initiatives focused on community resilience include, for example…

Federal Emergency Management Agency National Disaster Recovery Framework

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) National Disaster Resilience Competition

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Community Resilience Planning Guide for Buildings and Infrastructure Systems

Substantial regionally-based initiatives in the U.S. focused on community resilience include, for example…

SPUR – San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association

The Oregon Resilience Plan

Community and Regional Resilience Initiative (CARRI)

Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative – Consortium for Resilient Gulf Communities

UNISDR – Disaster Resilience Scorecard

HAZUS

Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities – BRIC (U.S.)

CARRI Community Resilience System (CRS)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal Resilience Index (CRI)

Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit (CART)

Rockefeller 100 RC Community Resilience Index

THRIVE (Toolkit for Health and Resilience in Vulnerable Environments)

Released October 29, 2015:

* Adapted from Flora and Flora.

Political

Capital

Cultural

Capital

Natural

Capital

Human

Capital

Financial

Capital

Social

Capital

Vital economy

Healthy ecosystem

Social equity

Community Resilience

Built

Capital

http://www.nist.gov/el/resilience/guide.cfm

While there are other guides available that address resilience issues, NIST’s Planning Guide has three unique aspects:

It recognizes that social needs should play a significant role in setting goals for how our buildings and physical infrastructure systems should perform.

The Guide acknowledges the unique role of local government as the logical convener for all relevant stakeholders needed to develop a comprehensive resilience plan.

It addresses dependencies among social and physical systems.

A need for critical reflection…

The sheer number , range, and scope of resilience initiatives, programs, activities can be confusing

Communication between the various entities engaged in these efforts has been an issue—although we see some improvement in this realm

Beware of community burnout

A need for critical reflection…

Resilience for whom and to what??? Who is really benefitting from these efforts?

Tierney and others have noted that resilience has become a boundary object—enabling communication and collaboration across disciplines and sectors

A need for critical reflection…

Does the emperor have any clothes? How effective are these various approaches to improving resilience?

Where are we with substantive evaluation efforts associated with these activities?

Discussion

Duane A. Gill Department of Sociology—Oklahoma State University

Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Native Studies—University of Alberta

Liesel Ashley Ritchie University of Colorado—Boulder

liesel.ritchie@colorado.edu