The Economic Benefits of a Disaster-Resistant University Disasters affect universities across the country. Not only are universities unique organizations that serve their communities and states, but they are also repositories of significant federal economic and social investment. Much of the research is multiyear, and the value of ongoing research is obviously higher.
Much American progress is fueled by academic research results.
The Disaster Resistant Universities Initiative is intended to motivate and enable the nation s universities to manage their vulnerability to local hazards and to reduce their losses in foreseeable disasters. Beyond the primary need to protect students, staff, and faculty, the Disaster Resistant Universities Initiative is designed to help universities safeguard their research capacities as well as the human capital associated with the academic environment. The Disaster Resistant Universities Research and Development Project generates a national model that can be adapted and used by other institutions. In Washington, D.C., FEMA staff are working with congressional staff and a coalition of other universities to establish new funding for the DRU Initiative over the next ten years. More broadly, this report is for all major universities and their surrounding communities to assist in estimating the impacts of natural disasters and to focus attention on the importance of loss-reduction programs and business resumption planning.