Equitable Resilience Builder
Supports communities in resilience planning
The Equitable Resilience Builder (ERB) is an application that supports communities in resilience planning. It contains guidance and templates for conducting participatory engagement with community members to assess the resilience of built, natural, and social systems and identify actions that increase resilience.
On this page:
What is ERB?
The Equitable Resilience Builder (ERB) is a downloadable application designed to be used by state, Tribal, territorial, county, or municipal agencies that work on environment, emergency management, public health, sustainability, land use, and risk management that supports communities in strengthening resilience to disasters.
It contains five sections: Plan, Engage, Assess, Strategize, and Move Forward. Each section has a series of activities that a core team carries out in conjunction with community organizations and members. The ERB is more than just a series of steps – it facilitates engagement, builds connections, and leverages creativity and local knowledge.
What is Community Resilience?
Community resilience describes the capacity to withstand, respond, adapt, and transform in the face of disasters in ways that are culturally appropriate, participatory, and enhances the resilience of the community, not just individual resilience. Community resilience acknowledges deeply rooted social forces that affect how community members who are vulnerable to disaster and extreme weather events may experience cascading consequences of incidents, and bear disproportionate benefits burdens of actions to increase resilience.
Key Community Resilience Definitions
| Term | What is it? | Why is it important? |
|---|---|---|
|
Hazard |
Any type of danger that a community might experience now or in the future. | It answers "to what" in resilience planning. To what hazards does your community need resilience? Some places may be at greater risk today from earthquakes, others from heat waves. |
| Social Vulnerability | The ways in which distinct populations, social groups, and communities are differentially made vulnerable to hazard and disasters. | It answers "who" in resilience planning. Who is most affected by the hazards your community faces, and who might need the most help if a disaster occurs? |
| Equity | A fair and just process that supports meaningful participation in decisions and a reasonable distribution of the benefits and burdens of taking action. | It answers "how" in resilience planning. How do we build community resilience in a fair and just way? This means listening to differing perspectives in decision-making, focusing on the needs of those who have been made most vulnerable, and making sure the benefits and costs of resilience actions are distributed fairly. |
| Community Resilience System | Social, built, and natural environment systems at different scales affect resilience at the community level. | It answers "what" in resilience planning. What systems are already help us face current or future hazards? What do we need to do to make social, built, and natural environmental systems become more resilient? |
Learn More About the Science
Journal article: Inclusive engagement for equitable resilience: community case study insights
This article presents findings from case studies conducted in three communities in 2023 using ERB materials in resilience planning workshops. The findings were used to inform development of the ERB tool.
Journal article: Centering equity in the development of a community resilience planning resource
This article offers lessons learned for others seeking to address resilience and equity in climate risk management, particularly when working with communities in proximity to contaminated lands.
Understanding who is impacted most severely by flooding, how and why is foundational for working towards equitable resilience. This document summarizes findings from peer reviewed research on social vulnerability to flooding published between 2000 and 2020 on inequities in flood impacts, response, and recovery.
Journal article: A coupled human-natural systems framework of community resilience
This article compares and contrasts resilience frameworks to identify commonalities and gaps. It proposes use of a coupled human-natural systems framework (CHNS) to analyze community resilience to disasters.
EPA Report: Evaluating Urban Resilience to Climate Change: A Multi-Sector Approach
This report describes an assessment tool, the indicators that populate the tool, and its use by cities to explore threats to and measures of communities' resilience to climate change, allowing decision-makers to focus planning efforts on those areas that are least resilient to anticipated impacts.
Training and Support
- For comments, questions, or feedback about the ERB, email [email protected].
- View a recorded webinar training on YouTube.
- Join the mailing list: sign up for the mailing list to receive updates & news.
Related Tools
- EnviroAtlas - Provides geospatial data, easy-to-use tools, and other resources related to ecosystem services, their chemical and non-chemical stressors, and human health.
- Smart Growth Strategies for Disaster Resilience and Recovery - Projects and tools that help communities incorporate strategies to improve quality of life and direct development away from vulnerable areas into their hazard mitigation plans.
- Environmental Resilience Tools Wizard - Online wizard that helps find the right EPA resources and tools to address environmental concerns in disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.