Case studies of community resilience policy
As part of its Community Disaster Resilience Program, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is examining approaches that various communities have employed to establish or support community resilience policy in municipal or regional government. NIST tasked the IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute to examine how communities develop economic development and hazard mitigation plans and to understand theexisting barriers preventing resilience from being incorporated into economic development plans, including governance, organizational, and management processes.
The three communities examined are: Los Angeles, California; Flagstaff, Arizona; and Norfolk, Virginia.
This study considered outcomes of resilience-focused initiatives, highlighting multiple policy-related outcomes. They include:
- enhancing the city’s awareness of risk, facilitating engagement with city stakeholders;
- collaboration between entities that have historically operated in distinctly separate jurisdictions;
- providing community policy decision makers with objective information;
- identifying budgetary sources for resilience and risk reduction measures; and capitalizing on favorable opportunities to implement policy.
These actions are also seen as examples of success in efforts of local officials to make their communities more resilient, and are highlighted as such in the case studies.
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