ResilienceNIST launches effort to improve disaster resilience of communities
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will host the first of six workshops devoted to developing a comprehensive, community-based disaster resilience framework, a national initiative carried out under the President’s Climate Action Plan. The workshop will be held on Monday, 7 April 2014.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will host the first of six workshops devoted to developing a comprehensive, community-based disaster resilience framework, a national initiative carried out under the President’s Climate Action Plan. The plan directs NIST to “convene a panel on disaster-resilience standards to develop a comprehensive, community-based resilience framework and provide guidelines for consistently safe buildings and infrastructure — products that can inform the development of private-sector standards and codes.” After completing the initial framework, NIST will convene the Disaster Resilience Standards Panel.
The workshop will be held at the NIST laboratories in Gaithersburg, Maryland, on Monday, 7 April 2014.
NIST says that the planned framework, focusing on buildings and infrastructure lifelines such as communications and electric power, will aid communities in efforts to protect people and property and to recover more rapidly from natural and man-made disasters. Hurricane Katrina, Superstorm Sandy, and other recent disasters have highlighted the interconnected nature of buildings and infrastructure systems and their vulnerabilities.
The six workshops will focus on the roles that buildings and infrastructure systems play in ensuring community resilience. NIST will use workshop inputs as it drafts the disaster resilience framework. To be released for public comment in April 2015, the framework will establish overall performance goals; assess existing standards, codes, and practices; and identify gaps that must be addressed to bolster community resilience.
NIST says it seeks input from a broad array of stakeholders, including planners, designers, facility owners and users, government officials, utility owners, regulators, standards and model code developers, insurers, trade and professional associations, disaster response and recovery groups, and researchers.
All workshops will focus on resilience needs, which, in part, will reflect hazard risks common to geographic regions.
The registration fee for the inaugural workshop is $55. Space is limited. To learn more and to register, go here. Registration closes on 31 March 2014.
More information on the disaster resilience framework can be found at NIST Web site.
