1 Introduction
The Institute for Resilient Communities (IRC) is dedicated to providing tools that
can be deployed to enhance resilience in communities locally and globally. The
goal is to minimize the impact associated with sudden or long-term changes
induced by human actions or natural disasters or a combination of both. To achieve
this goal, the IRC combines science, technology, education, and outreach and
involves academic and educational institutions as well as communities in an
international, multi-disciplinary, and multi-cultural context. It offers a framework
for research, education, and community involvement to minimize the physical and
psychological impact of future disruptive events and development and a forum for
dialogue among researchers, educators, decision makers, and communities.
2 The Concept of Resilience
The term resilience has become widely used over the last 15 years, specifically after
the terrorist attack on 9/11/2001 with slightly different definitions and interpretations
[1, 2]. According to dictionaries, such as Merriam-Webster [3], resilience is defined
as the ability to recover after a shock or deformation, the latter specifically in a
mechanistic context. Sometimes, resilience is not only associated with the ability to
recover after an event but also with actions to reduce the probability that a devastating event will occur (e.g. with the goal of avoiding or eliminating the possibility
for incidents before they happen) [4]. Yet, others associate resilience with robustness
or resistance to minimize or absorb the impact of an event, specifically in the context
of resilience engineering with the focus on limiting the damage to infrastructure
during the event [5]. In the following discussion and reflecting the goals of the
Institute for Resilient Communities, we focus on the process to enhance capabilities
to minimize the impact during and support the recovery after an unexpected event
[6, 7]. This is similar to President Obama’s statement describing resilience as “the
ability to adapt to changing conditions and withstand and rapidly recover from
disruption due to emergencies” [8]. While it is paramount to minimize the probability for an event to occur or to enhance the robustness of systems, catastrophic
events with potentially devastating consequences—whether induced by nature or by
actions or inactions by humans—will occur in the future. Resilience is a complex
concept as it does not only include science and engineering to minimize the impact
and to accelerate the recovery—ideally to a better state than before—but even more
importantly, the concept embodies societal and educational components. Resilience
efforts need to actively involve communities ranging from the local to the global
scale, as communities need to be the drivers of actions to enhance their resilience and
their ability to withstand and to recover more effectively. The goal of enhancing
resilience is not to ultimately reduce resources for communities assuming that a state
of sufficient resilience has been achieved. To the contrary, resilience implies a
208
K. Vetter
The Institute for Resilient Communities (IRC) is dedicated to providing tools that
can be deployed to enhance resilience in communities locally and globally. The
goal is to minimize the impact associated with sudden or long-term changes
induced by human actions or natural disasters or a combination of both. To achieve
this goal, the IRC combines science, technology, education, and outreach and
involves academic and educational institutions as well as communities in an
international, multi-disciplinary, and multi-cultural context. It offers a framework
for research, education, and community involvement to minimize the physical and
psychological impact of future disruptive events and development and a forum for
dialogue among researchers, educators, decision makers, and communities.
2 The Concept of Resilience
The term resilience has become widely used over the last 15 years, specifically after
the terrorist attack on 9/11/2001 with slightly different definitions and interpretations
[1, 2]. According to dictionaries, such as Merriam-Webster [3], resilience is defined
as the ability to recover after a shock or deformation, the latter specifically in a
mechanistic context. Sometimes, resilience is not only associated with the ability to
recover after an event but also with actions to reduce the probability that a devastating event will occur (e.g. with the goal of avoiding or eliminating the possibility
for incidents before they happen) [4]. Yet, others associate resilience with robustness
or resistance to minimize or absorb the impact of an event, specifically in the context
of resilience engineering with the focus on limiting the damage to infrastructure
during the event [5]. In the following discussion and reflecting the goals of the
Institute for Resilient Communities, we focus on the process to enhance capabilities
to minimize the impact during and support the recovery after an unexpected event
[6, 7]. This is similar to President Obama’s statement describing resilience as “the
ability to adapt to changing conditions and withstand and rapidly recover from
disruption due to emergencies” [8]. While it is paramount to minimize the probability for an event to occur or to enhance the robustness of systems, catastrophic
events with potentially devastating consequences—whether induced by nature or by
actions or inactions by humans—will occur in the future. Resilience is a complex
concept as it does not only include science and engineering to minimize the impact
and to accelerate the recovery—ideally to a better state than before—but even more
importantly, the concept embodies societal and educational components. Resilience
efforts need to actively involve communities ranging from the local to the global
scale, as communities need to be the drivers of actions to enhance their resilience and
their ability to withstand and to recover more effectively. The goal of enhancing
resilience is not to ultimately reduce resources for communities assuming that a state
of sufficient resilience has been achieved. To the contrary, resilience implies a
208
K. Vetter