Presented by: Frank Lavelle

Applied Research Associates, Inc.

Chapter 10. Metrics
Community Resilience Metrics

Two fundamental questions:

• How resilient is our community now?

• Will our efforts to improve resilience make a 

significant difference?
Community Resilience Metrics

• Communities require metrics that can be used 

to assess planning decisions about the built 

environment:

• Siting, Design, Construction

• Operation, Maintenance, Protection

• Repair and Restoration
Three Primary Types of Metrics

• Recovery times

• Economic vitality

• Social well-being
Recovery Times

• Easy to grasp as goals, but difficult to predict 

with confidence

• Often estimated through some combination of 

simplified modeling, past experience, and/or 

expert opinion

• Recovery times for services supported by the 

built environment have a direct impact on the 

economic vitality and social well-being of the 

community
Economic Vitality

Ability to ...

• Attract and retain businesses and jobs

• Maintain and grow the tax base

• Reduce poverty

• Provide services and amenities

• Maintain a vibrant and thriving economy
Social Well-being

Ability to meet human needs:

• Survival

• Water, food, clothing, shelter

• Safety and security

• Personal safety, economic security, health

• Sense of belonging

• Civic participation, social networks, trust in govt.

• Growth and achievement

• Education, arts, recreation
Many Existing Methodologies

• SPUR, Oregon

• UNISDR Disaster Resilience Scorecard

• CARRI Community Resilience System

• Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit

• Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities

• Rockefeller City Resilience Framework

• NOAA Coastal Resilience Index

• FEMA Hazus Methodology

• ...
Preliminary Assessment

Category Sub-Category

SPUROregonScorecardCARRI CRSCARTBRICCRFCRIHazusSymbol

Description

Scope Community size ● ● + + + + + ● + + Addresses a broad range

Hazards ● ● + + + + + - - ● Not inherently limited 

Recovery time scales + + ? ? ? ? + ● - - Limitation

Systems + + ? + - - + ● ● ? Additional info. required

Interdependencies ● ● ? +? - - +? - -

Utility User friendliness ● ● + + + + ● + ● + High

Utility without SMEs available - - + ●? ●? ●? ● ●? ●? ● Moderate

Value of outputs for planning + + ● ? ? ? +? ● ●? - Low

Consistency with PPD-21 + + ● + + ● ● ● - ? Additional info. required

Impacts Recovery times + + ● ● ● ● ● ● ● + Explicitly assessed

Economic impacts ● +? ● ● ● ● +? - ● ● Partially/indirectly assessed

Social impacts ● ● ● ● ● ● +? ● ● - Not assessed

? Additional info. required

Techniques Checklists - - + + + - + + ● + Yes

Interviews, Surveys - - - ● + - + ● ● ● Optional

Ratings + + + ● + - + ● + - No

Existing national data sets - - - - - + - - + ? Additional info. required

Physical inspections ● ● ● ● - - - ● ●

Engrg. analysis or exp. opinion + + ● ● - - - ● +

Statistical inference ● ● - ● - - - - +

Simulations ● ● - ● - - - - +

Science Maturity + + ● + - + ● ? + + Strength

Unique/innovative + ● ● + + + ● - + ● Neither

Objective/repeatable ● ● ● ● ● + +? - + - Weakness

Scientific merit +? +? - ? ? ? +? ? + ? Additional info. required
Breakout Topics

• Purpose of metrics

• Types of metrics

• Presentation: aggregate score vs. dashboard

• Existing metrics

• Challenges

• Chapter 10 feedback