A couple of weeks ago the US Chamber of Commerce convened an informal meeting of people who are actively involved in community resilience-related activities and initiatives at the local, state and federal levels. This resilience-related work is frequently couched in different terms – the most frequent being public/private partnerships – but all of it can be seen to further the ability of communities to withstand and recover from significant disruptions. The individuals present represented the private sector, research programs, government, trade associations and on-the-ground resilience projects. I was privileged to be invited to attend and participate.
One of the areas of agreement reached by this ad hoc group was that there is a critical need for the nation’s leadership to clearly establish resilience as an important national goal. Several, but not all, of the participants referred to this goal as creating a “culture of preparedness” thereby seeming to equate “preparedness” to “resilience.” In fact, at least one participant went so far as to declare that the idea of resilience was nothing new but was simply preparedness under a new title.
In an earlier Blog (June 27, 2009), I argued that preparedness is the necessary foundation upon which an expanded continuum of emergency management must rest and that one of the results of that expanded continuum (and maybe the most significant one) is resilience. One prepares to prevent, protect, respond and recover and success in executing the results of that preparation is evidenced by the resilience demonstrated during recovery. To me this seems to be different than simply equating preparedness with resilience.
Is this just a distinction without a difference or is it a discussion worth having?
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Mr. Edwards,
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy reading your posts. I would like to take your comments and concepts a little further by addressing the words by their definition.
- Preparedness: the state of having been made ready or prepared for use or action.
- Resilience: an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.
- Mitigation: the action of lessening in severity or intensity.
By mitigating our threats we reduce the impact of those threats and thereby reduce the negative outcome of those threats and the resources required to recover from said threats.
For example, in the case of natural disasters such as hurricanes there is the potential for enormous damage as witnessed by hurricanes Rita and Katrina. The recovery times are extensive, the costs are enormous, the resources are stretched to their limits and lives are disrupted for years.
A purposeful and focused approach by the Government to identify what causes the most significant damage during these events, then seeking out innovations and programs to mitigate these damages and then finally supporting these technologies and programs to provide the public protection from these events is the foundation of all other efforts.
By exploring innovative ideas and programs to reduce and/or eliminate the damages caused by severe weather, including hurricanes, we also reduce the recovery times, the human resources needed, the negative environmental impact caused, the energy usage required, the economic loss incurred and the many other broad reaching aspects of such disasters.
I think perhaps, I may be wrong, this is the point you are trying to make as well, with only a change in the terminology used. If it is not what you are considering, perhaps you would consider it.
Thanks again for your posts.
My google alerts have just brought this blog to my attention. We have been working with the concepts and applications of community resilience for 10 years or so now, starting with the publication of our Community Resilience Manual in 2000. This early work is based on a socio-economic framework of resilience. We are currently in the process of adapting that resilience model/tool to be more inclusive of ecological indicators so that it can also assist communities in responding to global warming and fuel scarcity implications. I share all of this by way of suggesting that the emergency response definitions of resilience - that it comes from successfully responding in effect - fall short for me. We define community resilience as being proactive in responding/adapting to change. Our characteristics can be measured and then communities can strengthen resilience capacities where they are weak. We need to understand the power of resilience values and behaviours (the characteristics) in all communities right now - to help them see the train coming and respond before the emergency - adapt to or mitigate the impacts in advance! So for us - adaptive capacity is an important characteristic of resilience - but resilience is the bigger umrella if you will, that includes both how and what we pay attention to adapting to. The original manual is a free download at www.cedworks.com
ReplyDeleteMr. Akins,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your (as usual) insightful comments. I think you have captured our thoughts at CARRI very well from a very practical point of view. We do think that the responsibilities you outline apply much deeper than just the government. From a community standpoint, it is critical that all elements of the community take the responsibility to identify the things that will enhance disaster recovery and and then prepare to address them. Government certainly has an important, maybe a leading role but government alone cannot make a community resilient.
Please continue to comment and provide your very useful thoughts.
WCE
I came to your blog just when I was surfing on this topic. I am happy that I found your blog and information I wanted.
ReplyDeleteWarren: Great commentary.
ReplyDeleteAs pointed out by Faron Atkins, absolutely there are differences between "preparedness" and "resilience". Two words with two different meanings. We lose clarity in our discussions when we blur definitions.
Both preparedness and resiliency have physical, mental, and societal aspects:
Preparedness: How many flashlights do you have? Are you mentally prepared to move out of your home? Do we have enough trained people to assist? etc.
Resilience: How fast can you re-roof the house? What can you do for a living after your place of employment disappeared? How can we build a new community?
The central issue, to my mind, is how we move forward. We all agree that preparedness is critical at many levels, yet most Americans have not taken the basic steps. Why? How do we convince them (actually, US!) to buy the flashlights, have an evacuation plan, have a list of drugs, etc. How do we allocate funding at a local, state, territorial, national level to be prepared for massive diaspora, harden critical infrastructure, train people to be self-sufficient, and whatever else we want to do to be prpared?
Many tough issues that need creative and forward thinking and a serious national dialog on priorities at both a personal and societal level.
Although we currently have several national dialogs ongoing, this is another that critically needs to get serious attention.
How to tee it up????