Measures of
Community
Resilience for
Local Decision Makers

Proceedings of a Workshop

Charlene Milliken, Rapporteur

Committee on Processes and Objectives for Community Measures of Resilience

Resilient America Roundtable

Policy and Global Affairs

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, DC
www.nap.edu

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001

This workshop was supported by Contract No. HSHQDC-15-P-0003 with the Department of Homeland Security; Contract No. HSFE40-14-C-0006 with the Federal Emergency Management Agency; Grant No. 10002044 from Margaret A. Cargill Foundation; and Contract No. G14AP00195 with the U.S. Geological Survey. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the rapporteur and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.

Digital Object Identifier: 10.17226/21911

Copyright 2017 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017. Measures of Community Resilience for Local Decision Makers: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21911.

COMMITTEE ON PROCESSES AND OBJECTIVES FOR COMMUNITY MEASURES OF RESILIENCE

Gerald E. Galloway (Chair) (NAE), Glenn L. Martin Institute Professor of Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park

John B. Carberry, Adjunct Professor of Chemical Engineering, University of Delaware

Susan L. Cutter, Carolina Distinguished Professor of Geography, University of South Carolina, Columbia

Chris D. Poland (NAE), Chris D. Poland Consulting Engineer, San Francisco, California

Staff

Lauren Alexander Augustine, Director, Program on Risk, Resilience, and Extreme Events

Elizabeth Eide, Director, Board on Earth Sciences and Resources

Sherrie Forrest, Senior Program Officer, Program on Risk, Resilience, and Extreme Events

Charlene Milliken, Associate Program Officer, Program on Risk, Resilience, and Extreme Events

Aqila Coulthurst, Associate Program Officer, Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy

Jamie Biglow, Senior Program Assistant, Program on Risk, Resilience, and Extreme Events

This page intentionally left blank.

RESILIENT AMERICA ROUNDTABLE

Eduardo Martinez (Co-Chair), President, The UPS Foundation

M. Granger Morgan (NAS) (Co-Chair), University Professor and Head, Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University

Holly A. Bamford, Assistant Administrator, National Ocean Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Frank Best, President, F.H. Best Associates

David Bibo, Deputy Associate Administrator for Policy, Program Analysis, and International Affairs, Federal Emergency Management Agency

Arrietta Chakos, Principal, Urban Resilience Strategies

Erin D. Coryell, Program Officer, Margaret A. Cargill Foundation

Erroll B. Davis, Jr., Retired Superintendent, Atlanta Public Schools

Reginald DesRoches, Karen and John Huff School Chair and Professor, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

The Honorable Caitlin Durkovich, Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Gerald E. Galloway, Jr. (NAE), Glenn L. Martin Institute Professor of Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park

Kevin P. Heaslip, Associate Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Lucile Jones, Science Advisor for Risk Reduction, SAFRR Project, Natural Hazards Mission Area, U.S. Geological Survey

David J. Kaufman, Vice President and Director, Safety and Security, CNA Corporation

Susan W. Kieffer (NAS), Emeritus Professor of Geology, Center for Advanced Study, and Charles R. Walgreen, Jr. Chair, Geology, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

Howard C. Kunreuther, Professor of Decision Sciences and Business and Public Policy and Co-Director Risk Management and Decision Resources Center, Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania

Linda Langston, Linn County Board of Supervisors, and Immediate Past President, National Association of Counties

Michael G. (Mike) Manning, Chairman of the Board of Directors, NVOAD (National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster) and President and CEO, Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank

Alfonso Martinez-Fonts, Jr., Retired Executive Vice President, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation

Gerald McSwiggan, Director, Issues Network, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation

Lori Peek, Associate Professor of Sociology, and Co-director, Center for Disaster and Risk Analysis, Colorado State University

Jon M. Peha, Professor, Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University

Charlotte Porter, Acting Director, Individual and Community Preparedness Division, National Preparedness Directorate, Federal Emergency Management Agency

Richard Reed, Senior Vice President, Disaster Cycle Services, National Headquarters, American Red Cross

Monica Schoch-Spana, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Texas State University

William D. Solecki, Professor of Geography, Hunter College of the City University of New York

Ellis M. Stanley, Sr., Managing Partner, Ellis Stanley Partners, LLC

Theodore C. (Ted) Van Kirk, Executive Vice President, Dewberry

Thomas J. Wilbanks, ORNL Corporate Fellow, Environmental Sciences Division, Climate Change Science Institute, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Roy E. Wright, Deputy Associate Administrator for Mitigation, Federal Emergency Management Agency

Mary Lou Zoback (NAS), Consulting Professor, Department of Geophysics, Stanford University

This page intentionally left blank.

Preface and Acknowledgments

The 2012 National Research Council¹ report, Disaster Resilience: A National Imperative, outlined some of the physical, fiscal, social, cultural, and environmental challenges communities face in building resilience to extreme events. The report emphasized the importance of a community’s ability to measure its progress along the path of building resilience by setting achievable milestones and goals, and developing an approach for reaching those milestones and goals. This report is a summary of a one-and-a-half day workshop focused on processes that communities could employ to begin developing targeted resilience objectives.

The goal of the July 2015 workshop was to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and information about ways to advance the development and implementation of resilience measures by and within diverse communities. A secondary goal was to gain a better understanding of the challenges these communities face in the pursuit of resilience and whether the approach used during this workshop can help guide communities in their efforts to build their own measures of resilience. The ideas presented in this workshop will help refine this approach and inform the Resilient America Roundtable’s projects and future activities with communities.

This report has been prepared by a rapporteur as a factual summary of what occurred at the workshop. The statements made are those of the rapporteur and do not necessarily represent positions of workshop participants as a whole, the planning committee, or the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. This workshop summary is the result of efforts and collaboration among several organizations and individuals. This workshop’s success would not have been possible without the invaluable contributions by the panelists, moderators, and participants who donated their time and expertise to inform these discussions.

We would like to add a special thanks to Resilient America Roundtable members who attended this workshop: Ms. Arietta Chakos from Urban Resilience Strategies, Ms. Erin Coryell from the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation, Dr. Kevin Heaslip from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Ms. Linda Langston from the Linn County Board of Supervisors, and Dr. Monica Schoch-Spana from Texas State University. We would also like to thank Dr. Atreya Ajita, Mr. Daniel Genua, Mr. Mark Lindberg, Ms. Jackie Snelling, and Dr. Eric Tate. Finally, our warmest thanks go to the representatives from the 11 communities who shared their insights, experiences, successes, and challenges: Boston, Massachusetts; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Charleston, South Carolina; Des Moines,

___________________

¹ Effective July 1, 2015, the institution is called the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. References in this report to the National Research Council are used in a historic context identifying programs prior to July 1.

Iowa; Eugene, Oregon; Omaha, Nebraska; Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, California; Seattle, Washington; Washington, District of Columbia; and Woodstock, Vermont.

This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for quality and objectivity. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the process.

We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report: Ms. Erin Coryell, Margaret A. Cargill Foundation; Dr. Kristin Ludwig, U.S. Geological Survey; Mr. Matthew McRae, City of Eugene (Oregon); Mr. James Redick, City of Norfolk (Virginia); and Dr. Monica Schoch-Spana, Austin (Texas).

Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the content of the report, nor did they see the final draft before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Dr. Mary Lou Zoback, Stanford University. Appointed by the National Academies, she was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the rapporteur and the institution.

Contents

1 RESILIENCE MEASURES IN CONTEXT AND WORKSHOP GOALS

Introduction

Resilience Measures in Context

Getting to Resilience: Why It Matters

Community Snapshots

2 COMMUNITY RESILIENCE IN ACTION PANEL

Advancing Bay Area Resilience: An Integrated Approach

The Boston Indicators Project: Measuring What We Value

Capital Crossroads: A Vision Forward

Question and Answer Session

3 BREAKOUT SESSION: COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENTS AND MEASURES

Social/Wellness Environment

Human Environment

Financial/Economic Environment

Physical/Built Environment

Natural Environment

Governance/Leadership Environment

Summary of the Breakout Sessions

Implementing Community Resilience Measures: Challenges and Solutions

4 KEY POINTS RAISED IN WORKSHOP

Final Comments

REFERENCES

APPENDIXES

A WORKSHOP AGENDA

B APPROACHES AND INDEXES FOR BUILDING RESILIENCE

C PLANNING COMMITTEE, SPEAKERS, AND MODERATOR BIOGRAPHIES