&EPA
EPA/600/R-15/163 i October 2015 I www2.epa.gov/research
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Environmental Resilience:
Exploring Scientific Concepts for Strengthening
Community Resilience to Disasters
Office of Research and Development
National Homeland Security Research Center

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Disclaimer
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through its Office of Research and Development
funded and collaborated in the research described herein through EPA Contract EP-14-C-000083 and
under an Inter-Agency Agreement with the Department of the Interior Federal Consulting Group: Inter -
Agency Agreement 10085 EPA National Resiliency Indicators RG-WA-13-08. It has been subjected to the
Agency's review and has been approved for publication. Note that approval does not signify that the
contents necessarily reflect the views of the Agency.
Questions concerning this document or its application should be addressed to:
Dr. Keely Maxwell, Maxwell.Keelv@epa.gov or 202-564-5266.
Acknowledgments
The U.S. EPA would like to acknowledge Brendan Doyle, Keely Maxwell, Eli Walton, and Elaine Wright
(Federal Consulting Group) for their contributions to this report. Other CERI team members: Susan
Julius, Paul Lemieux, Regan Murray, and Cynthia Yund contributed to the workshops, ongoing CERI
work, and review of this document. The team would like to acknowledge Greg Sayles, Acting Director of
EPA's National Homeland Security Research Center (NHSRC), and the EPA ORD NHSRC Innovation
Team for the funding that made these workshops possible, as well as the ongoing support of ORD and
NHSRC senior leadership including Lek Kadeli, Alan Hecht, Greg Sayles, Hiba Ernst, Emily Snyder, and
Tonya Nichols.
The authors of this report appreciate the contributions made by workshop presenters Gelena Constantine,
Stephen Clark, Joseph Fiksel, Alan Hecht, Angel Hsu, Mario Ierardi, Peter Jutro, Kris Ludwig, Doug
Pabst, Brian Pickard, Seema Schappelle, Gavin Smith, Roy Sidle, Susan Julius and Susan Thorneloe.
Workshop support was provided by Charlena Bowling, Tanya Medley, Maxine Johnson, and Margaret
Black. Report reviewers Alan Hecht, Nat Miullo and Seema Schappelle improved the final report. We are
delighted to have had the opportunity to engage with all the workshop participants; they made the
workshops a success.
Cover Photo Credits: FEMA/Greg Henshall; FEMA/Hans Pennink; EPA
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List of Acronyms & Abbreviations
AAAS	American Association for the Advancement of Science
CBRN	Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear
CBWR	Community-Based Water Resiliency (Tool)
CERI	Community Environmental Resiliency Index
CHNS	Coupled Human-Natural System
CREAT	Climate Resilience Evaluation & Awareness Tool
DOI	Department of the Interior
DOSII	Database of Sustainability Indicators and Indices
EJ	Environmental Justice
EO	Executive Order
EPA	U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
EPI	Environmental Performance Index
FEMA	Federal Emergency Management Agency
HSRP	Homeland Security Research Program
HUD	U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
HVAC	Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning
I-WASTE	Incident Waste Assessment & Tonnage Estimator
NCEA	National Center for Environmental Assessment
NEJAC	National Environmental Justice Advisory Council
NERL	National Exposure Research Laboratory
NHSRC	National Homeland Security Research Center
NIST	National Institute of Standards and Technology
NRC	National Research Council
NRMRL	National Risk Management Research Laboratory
ORCR	Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery
ORD	Office of Research and Development
OSC	On-Scene Coordinator
OSP	Office of Science Policy
OSWER	Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response
OW	Offi ce of Water
PPD	Presidential Policy Directive
ROE	Report on the Environment
SDWA	Safe Drinking Water Act
TEVA-SPOT Threat Ensemble Vulnerability Assessment-Sensor Placement Optimization Tool
US	United States
USGS	U.S. Geological Survey
USPS	U.S. Postal Service
WARN	Water/Wastewater Agency Response Networks
WEST	Waste Estimation Support Tool
ii

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Table of Contents
List of Acronyms & Abbreviations	
Executive Summary	
Key Workshop Themes	
Resilience and environmental resilience concepts	
Resilience, sustainability, and environmental justice	
Resilience indicators	
Index development and CERI products	
Workshop I Highlights	
Workshop II Highlights	
CERI Workshop Outcomes	
Next Steps	
Afterword	
Appendix A: Participants in the CERI Workshops	
Appendix B: Agendas for CERI Workshops	
Appendix C: Definitions and Descriptions of Resilience	
Appendix D: CERI Breakout Discussion Questions	
Appendix E: Community Environmental Resilience Indicators	
Appendix F: CERI Workshop I Technical Brief	
Appendix G: Project Resources & References	

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List of Figures
Figure 1: Definition of Resilience in Recent Federal Policy	4
Figure 2: Timeline of Federal Policies and Guidelines Addressing Resilience	5
Figure 3: Stages in the Cycle of Resilience	5
Figure 4: Benefits of Constructing an Index	6
Figure 5: CERI Team Definition of Environmental Resilience	7
Figure 6: Resilience as a Foundation for Achieving Sustainability	8
Figure 7: Key Design Considerations for Constructing an Index	9
Figure 8: Process for Improving Flood Resilience	12
Figure 9: Resilience & Sustainability, Distinct System Capacities	13
Figure 10: All-Hazard Threats to Health & Environment	14
Figure 11: EPI Index Development	16
List of Tables
Table 1: Available EPA Resilience Tools	11
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Executive Summary
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) protects human health and the environment.
The agency has responsibilities in emergency and disaster preparedness, response, and recovery.
This work involves actions such as protecting water infrastructure, cleaning up contaminated
sites, and promoting sustainable and resilient rebuilding. EPA's Office of Research and
Development (ORD) Homeland Security Research Program (HSRP) conducts scientific research
to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of EPA's response and remediation efforts. EPA's
work in disasters helps communities build resilience. Presidential Policy Directive (PPD)-21 and
Executive Order (EO) 13653 define resilience as ".. .the ability to anticipate, prepare for, and
adapt to changing conditions and withstand, respond to, and recover rapidly from disruptions."
Having a scientific means of measuring resilience would allow EPA, states, and local
stakeholders to identify vulnerabilities, assess environmental and health risks of disasters,
establish benchmarks, and track progress in improving recovery capacity.
In an effort to measure resilience, an HSRP team launched an innovative research project in late
2013 to conceptualize a framework for developing a Community Environmental Resilience
Index (CERI). It followed a National Research Council (NRC) report on disaster resilience and
interagency efforts in response to Hurricane Sandy. The CERI team used the five-step index
development process used by the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy for its global
Environmental Performance Index (EPI). It adapted the principles and criteria that the EPA's
Report on the Environment (ROE) used to develop environmental indicators.
The first project goal was to define community environmental resilience and describe EPA's role
in supporting it. The second was to establish how indicators could measure the resilience of
environmental systems upon which communities depend. The third was to identify new
opportunities to provide communities with tools and expertise to enhance their resilience to
disasters. The fourth goal was to develop a network of collaborators for exploring CERI
applications, indicators, and indices. This report summarizes the outputs of two workshops
conducted by the CERI team involving 120 participants from across EPA, the federal
government, academia, and other organizations.
The HSRP team convened a workshop in May, 2014, attended by 63 experts from EPA.
Participants gained a better understanding of EPA's role in disaster recovery. They explored
scientific concepts regarding environmental resilience. The EPA Office of Solid Waste and
Emergency Response (OSWER) and Office of Water (OW) reported on how they build
resilience through water security, waste management, and cleanup programs using utility-
specific tools and indicators. EPA Region 2 briefed participants on how EPA and other federal
partners assisted environmental response, recovery, and rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy.
Participants from other EPA programs shared how they applied community resilience concepts
to their work. Workshop participants recognized the value of pursuing a systems approach to
resilience science. They identified the need for further research to address the relationship
between resilience, sustainability, and environmental justice (EJ), key elements of EPA's
mission and most recent Strategic Plan.1
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Based on workshop discussions, the CERI team proposed a working definition of community
environmental resilience: Minimizing environmental risks associated with disasters, quickly
returning critical environmental and ecological services to functionality after a disaster while
applying this learning process to reduce vulnerabilities and risks to future incidents.
Another outcome was a call to identify and inventory tools EPA has already produced to help
communities assess their environmental vulnerabilities to disasters, health and environmental
risks of disasters, and environmental recovery capacity. These tools address water security,
contaminant detection, flood resilience, decontamination, emergency water supply, waste
management, environmental justice, and other issues. As a result of this workshop, a report on
EPA's resiliency tools will soon be published.
Communities can use indicators to monitor and measure progress in improving their resilience to
disasters and other shocks to their social, environmental, and ecological systems. These
indicators should be relevant, compelling to local stakeholders, and easily measured. Participants
proposed an initial list of community environmental resilience indicators such as: percent
municipal budget in reserve, number of environmental stakeholders involved in disaster
preparedness exercises, ratio of green to gray infrastructure, landfill capacity, wetlands loss in
last decade, and number of local environmental organizations per capita. They identified
potential sources of indicators such as EPA's ROE, Database of Sustainability Indicators and
Indices (DOSII), and framework and indicators of urban resilience to climate change. The
workshop fostered an emerging community of interest in resilience across the agency.
The second workshop in July, 2014, was attended by 68 experts from EPA, ten other federal
agencies, universities, and other organizations. One goal was to develop a common
understanding of the importance of community environmental resilience to disaster
preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. Another goal was to refine the initial list of
indicators and build a roadmap for how to structure a CERI to support disaster decision-making.
One outcome of the July workshop was further refinement of proposed resilience indicators.
Indicators for environmental health and environmental justice, the water-energy nexus, the
waste-energy nexus, and ecological systems and services were discussed. Qualitative and
quantitative indicators were suggested.
A second outcome was a better sense of how to structure a CERI to maximize its utility.
Participants learned how the Yale EPI has become useful to environmental policy across the
globe and how EPA's ROE uses indicators to measure national progress toward human health
and environmental goals. They saw how strategic science has become part of disaster response at
the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI). Participants identified environmental information
needs of disaster decision-makers including community planners, emergency management
departments, public works and utilities, and state and federal agencies. They suggested
developing a flexible framework for a CERI to apply it to a variety of communities and disaster
situations. Communication and collaboration with stakeholders throughout the index
development process was also emphasized. CERI products might be a full-fledged index, a self-
assessment checklist, or a series of benchmarks.
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The third outcome of the workshop was to identify potential purposes, audiences, and uses for a
CERI. Audiences could include EPA, other federal agencies, state and local officials, and others
involved in disaster and land use planning in urban or rural communities. It could be used by:
•	Researchers, to identify thresholds above or below which systems gain or lose resilience;
•	Communities, states, and tribes, to conduct self-assessments that benchmark vulnerabilities,
capabilities, and needs;
•	Communities, states, and tribes, to track improvements following preparedness and
mitigation actions;
•	Federal program managers, to guide resource allocations and measure policy outcomes.
A final outcome was that the workshop further expanded the network of collaborators interested
in community environmental resilience research, indicator development, and CERI applications.
The next steps for the CERI research team are to continue inventorying relevant indicators and
seeking ways to apply EPA's resiliency tools. Following the conclusion of the workshops, the
HSRP team has reached out to other ongoing resilience efforts including EPA's Making a Visible
Difference in Communities initiative, interagency working groups and projects, and non-federal
organizations that have Memoranda of Understanding with the EPA. The research team is
working to leverage EPA's environmental indicators and collaborate with OSWER, OW, and
other EPA Programs and Regions to further refine and test community environmental resilience
indicators. They plan to adapt the Yale EPI index development process and begin by more
clearly articulating the audience, principles, and goals of a CERI. As a result of the workshop, an
ongoing exchange of information on emerging issues in resilience science and practice continues
with an expanding network of collaborators.
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Background to Workshops
Across the United States (US), communities experience extreme weather events, technological
accidents, and other disruptive incidents. Since 2000, US Presidents have issued between 45 and
99 major disaster declarations annually.11 In 2014, eight weather and climate disaster events in
the US caused losses exceeding $1 billion each.111 Disasters such as these impact communities in
many ways. They destroy critical infrastructure and natural resources, damage human health and
the local economy, displace human populations, and disrupt environmental services. One way for
communities to improve their capacity to cope with disasters is to enhance their resilience
(Appendix C).
Presidential Policy Directive (PPD)-21 and Executive Order (EO) 13653 define resilience as
"the ability to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to changing conditions and withstand, respond
to, and recover rapidly from disruptions" (Figure 1).1V V Resilience helps communities mitigate
risks disasters pose and facilitate recovery after an incident. Actions to build resilience may take
place during any stage of disaster mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery, and rebuilding.
In his introduction to the 2013 Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Strategy Report, Hurricane Sandy
Task Force Chair and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan
recognized that " [resilience] work will help protect communities in the region when future
disasters take place. It will also make a positive impact on budgets... We know that every dollar
we spend today on hazard mitigation saves us at least $4 in avoided costs if a disaster strikes
again. By building more resilient regions, we can save billions in taxpayer dollars. "V1
'Resilience' means the ability to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt
to changing conditions and withstand, respond to, and recover
rapidly from disruptions.
Figure 1: Definition of Resilience in Recent Federal Policy
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has worked extensively with states, utilities,
and other community stakeholders in disaster preparedness, emergency response, and recovery.
After a devastating tornado struck Joplin, Mo., in 2011, EPA provided $5.4 million from the
Superfund program to sample and remediate lead- and cadmium-contaminated soils to facilitate
community rebuilding. In 2013, EPA provided $340 million to New York and $229 million to
New Jersey to improve wastewater and drinking water treatment facilities impacted by Hurricane
Sandy. Such water and storm protection improvements incorporate green infrastructure that can
improve sustainability and resiliency by reducing stormwater runoff, lowering energy usage, and
protecting floodplains. Efforts like these that build community resilience have been guided by
federal policies that address disasters, homeland security, and climate change (Figure 2).vu These
policies have begun to use resilience as a guiding principle and call on federal agencies to
integrate resilience into their core programs.
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Homeland
Security
Presidential
Directive 7


National
Security
Strategy
a
Sandy
Supplemental;
PPD 21;
liO 13653
EO 13632
0	0	
Presidential
Decision
Directive 63
National
Strategy for
Homeland
Security

PPD 8;
National Disaster
Recovery Framework
Hurricane Sandy
Rebuilding Strategy;
Climate Action Plan
NIST Disaster Resilience
Workshops;
Presidential Task Force
Figure 2: Timeline of Federal Policies and Guidelines Addressing Resilience
The Homeland Security Research Program (HSRP) supports EPA's work in disaster
preparedness, response, and recovery (Figure 3). It conducts research in two key areas:
protection of water and wastewater systems and decontamination following a disaster. Its water
security research addresses water system resilience. HSRP recently expanded its research focus
to include "all-hazard" disasters, that is, natural hazards as well as chemical, biological,
radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) incidents. As part of this shift, its research in resilience
measurements and indicators has expanded, as well.
Preparedness &
Mitigation
Lessons Learned
& Adaptation
Incident
Response &
Recovery
Figure 3: Stages in the Cycle of Resilience
Adapted from U.S. EPA. 2015. Systems Measures of Water Distribution System Resilience
The ability to use indicators to measure resilience would allow EPA, states, and local
stakeholders to identify vulnerabilities, establish benchmarks, and track progress in reducing
vulnerability and improving recovery capacity. The 2012 National Research Council (NRC)
report on resilience calls for improved ways to assess community resilience, but also reveals a
gap in scientific measurements of the resilience of environmental systems upon which
communities depend (Appendix G). The EPA offers a number of scientifically based
environmental indicators such as those in the Report on the Environment (ROE), but these do not
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include resiliency indicators. To begin to fill this gap, the research team decided to explore
scientific concepts for developing a Community Environmental Resilience Index (CERI).
An index is a collection of weighted indicators. It provides scientific measurements relevant to
decision-making. The index development process laid out by the Yale Environmental
Performance Index (EPI) was used as a guide for creating a CERI. The EPI itself does not
measure resilience but does offer a refined methodology for creating an environmental index to
be used in decision-making (Figure 4). The CERI team adapted the principles and criteria for
establishing environmental indicators used by the ROE. A CERI could be used by the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to establish priorities for preparedness or mitigation
grants, by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to measure success
of its National Disaster Resilience Competition, or by EPA's Water Infrastructure and Resiliency
Finance Center to evaluate community risks and vulnerabilities. Communities could develop
self-assessment checklists to track their own progress in building resilience.
An environmental index can be used to "Distill complex information,
allowing decision makers and key audiences to efficiently spot critical
areas of concern, support policy development and target setting, and
measure impacts of policy responses" (Hsu et al 2013 p. 5)
Figure 4: Benefits of Constructing an Index
The CERI team hosted two workshops to explore scientific concepts, information needs, and
strategies for developing a CERI (Appendix B). The first workshop was held May 6-7, 2014,
concurrently in EPA facilities in Cincinnati, Ohio, Research Triangle Park, N.C., Washington,
D.C., and via webinar. The workshop was attended by 63 participants from EPA's Office of
Research and Development (ORD), Programs, and Regions. The workshop was organized
around three questions:
•	Would a CERI be relevant to EPA's work in disasters?
•	What building blocks are already in place in terms of indicators, science, and tools?
•	Who wants to be involved from across the agency?
The second workshop was held July 22-23, 2014, in Arlington, Va., and via webinar. The
workshop was attended by 68 participants from EPA, ten other federal agencies, and scientific
experts from academia and other organizations (Appendix A). The workshop was organized
around four questions:
•	What is environmental resilience?
•	What indicators should we include in a CERI?
•	How do we build a scientifically valid and usable index?
•	Who will use a CERI, and in what form?
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Key Workshop Themes
Plenary and breakout discussions at the workshops coalesced around four key themes: resilience
and environmental resilience concepts; resilience, sustainability, and environmental justice;
resilience indicators; index development process and CERI products (Appendix D, Appendix F).
A few key takeaways for each theme follow.
Resilience and environmental resilience concepts
The workshops explored resilience concepts by examining how established definitions relate to
EPA's mission and its work in emergency response, environmental justice, water, waste, and
sustainable communities. Participants concurred that resilience is a systems concept with social
and environmental components. They deliberated whether it applies to different types of
disasters: slow-moving events as well as acute shocks, economic disruptions as well as
environmental disasters. One lingering uncertainty is how resilience relates to other concepts
such as vulnerability, resistance, and risk management. Another point of debate was what the end
goal of resilience is: a return to normal or adapting to a new normal.
Participants suggested several ways EPA could engage with communities on resilience. One was
to establish a common language to aid communication between EPA and local stakeholders.
Another was to test technologies before an incident. Helping communities understand and apply
EPA tools was mentioned. EPA research could help communities assess vulnerabilities, assets,
and potential impacts of disasters. Challenges to engaging communities on resilience were also
noted. Federal agencies play limited roles after disasters. Organizational structure and statutory
mandates can impede collaboration within and between agencies.
A proposed definition of environmental resilience emerged from the first workshop and was
received positively at the second workshop (Figure 5). This proposed definition builds on other
established definitions and provides a more specific focus on what resilience means for
protecting human health and the environment.
Environmental resilience:
Minimizing environmental risks associated with disasters, quickly
returning critical environmental and ecological services to functionality
after a disaster while applying this learning process to reduce
vulnerabilities and risks to future incidents.
Figure 5: CERI Team Definition of Environmental Resilience
Resilience, sustainability, and environmental justice
The workshops explored how resilience relates to EPA's priorities in sustainability and
environmental justice. Participants discussed how environmental justice considerations are
important to resilience and how resilience is relevant to EPA's ongoing work in Environmental
Justice (EJ). The environment can present a threat during disasters. Floodwaters and tornado
debris can create new exposure routes for environmental contaminants, for example. There was
recognition that communities overburdened by environmental harms and underrepresented in
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decision-making processes may
be particularly vulnerable to the
environmental impacts of
disasters. Participants wondered
whether affluent communities
are more resilient and expressed
interest in building resilience in
ways that empower
communities.
Working towards a sustainable
future is one of seven EPA
themes, a cross-agency strategy,
and a principle underlying ORD
research. Participants recognized
that resilience to shocks and
disasters is necessary for communities to achieve environmental, social, and economic
sustainability (Figure 6). They acknowledged that there may be tradeoffs, as well. Resiliency
may involve raising a short term environmental footprint to support long term sustainability.
Resilience indicators
A number of suggestions were made for developing community environmental resilience
indicators. The first suggestion was to leverage existing EPA work in indicators and indices.
Other environmental data sources such as urban tree inventories were mentioned, as well.
Second, the team should finalize its criteria for what makes a good indicator. Scientific validity,
routinely collected data, baseline data availability, and usability were mentioned as desirable
qualities. Indicators should be evaluated periodically and deselected if 110 longer applicable.
There was general agreement that a systems approach should be used to measure resilience.
Water, energy and transportation systems are all interdependent, for example. Upstream and
downstream effects must be taken into account. There was not complete agreement over whether
a community- or a sector-based approach was preferable to developing indicators. Participants
noted that recovery speed and quality are integral to resilience and should both be measured.
Several challenges to measuring resilience were recognized. One is integrating measurements
and data across systems. Another is that many aspects of disaster vulnerability and recovery are
not easily measurable. Particular attention must be paid to the spatial scale of the measurement.
Waste management jurisdictions or hospital vi sits for asthma attacks may not directly correspond
with community boundaries. Time scales are also important. Lease lengths may affect residents'
decisions to return after a disaster, and contaminants have varying persistence times in the
environment. Forward-looking and scalable indicators were mentioned as desirable.
A number of potential indicators for a CERI were suggested, including several that are not
routinely included in current resilience assessments (Appendix E). Suggested indicators spanned
socioeconomic and environmental systems. Indicators of water resilience should address water
systems serving the largest populations, those with most damage to drinking water systems, and
Sustainability
Environment Social	Economic


1 1
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*
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/fs

y
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Resiliency
S
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Figure 6: Resilience as a Foundation for Achieving
Sustainability
8

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Goal
the ecosystem functions that support water supplies. Measurements should capture the
functionality of the entire system, including drinking water, wastewater containment, secured
reservoirs and surface impoundments, pumping stations, backup energy supplies, source water
and aquifer recharge zones. Indicators of waste resilience could include landfill capacity, age of
infrastructure, planning and field exercises conducted, affected populations in disaster and
disposal sites, and maturity of curbside recycling programs.
Index development and CERI products
The value of developing a CERI was recognized. A CERI could help EPA, other federal
agencies, states, tribes, urban and land use planners, non-governmental organizations, emergency
responders, and community decision-makers prioritize issues, make decisions, and allocate
resources to achieve resilience goals and objectives.
There was general consensus that the Yale EPI index development process was appropriate to
follow because of its clear focus on identifying the audience and articulating the principles and
goals of an index (Figure 7). Participants noted that a communications plan and community
engagement are necessary from the onset to
develop common language and
understanding. The CERI development
process should be transparent and incorporate
feedback from community stakeholders.
Following this method should result in a
framework that is relevant to local values and
flexible enough to accommodate local needs.
Building an index involves selecting,
normalizing, and weighing indicators.
Indicators should be selected based on
relevance and importance. One way of
prioritizing indicators would be making those
that reflect critical functionality of basic life
systems such as energy, water, food,
mobility, and healthcare the highest priority.
The possibility of creating a computational
model was raised. An index should show a
range of values, not a dichotomy, and could
be semi-quantitative. Participants pondered whether different types of incidents or different
places would require different indices. A one-size-fits-all set of indicators might not be relevant
for all communities. An alternative is to develop a flexible framework. Communities themselves
could tailor an index based on their values, vulnerabilities, and hazard threats. Data collection
could be done in conjunction with communities.
There was not complete agreement on what CERI products might be. Some participants
advocated for a scientifically vetted and validated index. Others proposed establishing a set of
community benchmarks in lieu of an index. For example, the top three benchmarks for water
It
/
Audience
Principles
GUIDES


sSfs INTERt^
0*
Figure 7: Key Design Considerations for
Constructing an Index
Adapted from Hsu et a 12013
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infrastructure protection could be availability, reliability, and upstream/ downstream
dependencies. A number of participants thought that a community self-assessment checklist or
dashboard might be of greater use to decision-makers at the state or local level. Still others
recommended adding a CERI to existing EPA platforms. There was agreement that end-product
should be useful to and easy to use by community stakeholders.
Workshop I Highlights
The first workshop was organized to identify EPA's assets, research needs, and opportunities in
the realm of community resilience. By identifying potential uses of a CERI to support resilience
and sustainability research, the goal was to generate interest throughout the agency. In his
opening remarks, Dr. Gregory Sayles, the Acting Director of EPA ORD's National Homeland
Security Research Center (NHSRC) and the National Program Director of the HSRP, outlined
the vision of this initiative. It provides an opportunity for EPA and other federal partners to
collaborate on exploring a CERI as an analytical and research planning tool to identify ways to
strengthen communities' resilience to natural and anthropogenic disasters.
Brendan Doyle, Senior Advisor to EPA ORD NHSRC, outlined the concepts and development of
a CERI. He shared the Yale EPI as a model for index development. The workshops are designed
to help the CERI team advance through the first three steps of the index development process.
He then gave examples of how a CERI would be helpful in communities.
Dr. Keely Maxwell, then an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Fellow in EPA ORD NHSRC, discussed Community Resilience Science: Definitions & Systems
Model. Dr. Maxwell was joined by Doug Pabst, the Chief of Region 2's Sandy Recovery Green
Team. Mr. Pabst presented a case study of Community Resilience in Action @ EPA: Disaster
Response. Dr. Maxwell described scientific resiliency models, including a coupled human-
natural systems (CHNS) model of resilient systems.
Mr. Pabst shared the case study of Hurricane Sandy. On October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit
the Mid-Atlantic coast. EPA Region 2 offered immediate technical assistance to wastewater and
drinking water facilities by providing On-Scene Coordinators (OSCs) and site assessments. Mr.
Pabst highlighted the rebuilding strategy that was developed after the incident and described the
structure of the Sandy Regional Infrastructure Resilience Coordination Group. He also noted that
Group members were beginning to assess impacts of Hurricane Sandy on environmental and
natural resources in the Region.
The participants broke into small workgroups to discuss definitions of community resilience and
how EPA could apply the concept of resilience to its work on different types of disasters. The
workgroups identified what information, resources, and collaborative efforts would be required,
and what EPA tools are available to on-scene coordinators, water utilities, and other stakeholders
involved in disaster planning and response (Table 1). Restoring estuaries and wetlands,
proactively managing debris and waste and addressing interdependencies between water and
energy systems are all steps communities can take to strengthen their environmental resilience.
Dr. Alan Hecht, Director of Sustainable Development, ORD and Dr. Peter Jutro, former Acting
Associate Administrator for Homeland Security, engaged in a discussion on the differences and
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the similarities between Sustainability and Resiliency. Dr. Hecht noted that sustainability is one
of the cross cutting goals of EPA. People depend on environmental, social, and economic
systems that are more and more tightly coupled. Because of these system linkages, resilience is a
key element to achieving sustainability. From the Homeland Security perspective, resilience is
the ability to bounce back as quickly as possible after a natural disaster or homeland security
incident. Recent examples include the World Trade Center attack and Hurricane Sandy. These
incidents can be statistically predictable like a hurricane or tornado or unpredictable like a
terrorist attack. Differentiating between rapid disasters and slow moving changes such as climate
change is also necessary for building resilience. EPA has a role in enhancing resilience and in
interagency response and recovery. Dr. Hecht called for a comprehensive inventory of EPA tools
that aid the agency's resilience efforts.
Table 1: EPA Resilience Tools Discussed at First CERI Workshop
Resilience Tool
Purpose
Climate Resilience Evaluation
and Awareness Tool1
Water utilities explore climate change impacts & adaptation strategies
CANARY & TEVA-SPOT2
Detection & early warning for contaminants & service disruption in drinking
water distribution systems
Community-Based Water
Resiliency Tool1
Water utilities gauge current preparedness efforts. Promote community
awareness of need to include the water sector in emergency planning.
Emergency Water Supply
planning guidance1
Guidance on how to plan for disruptions in drinking water services
Flood Resilience: A Basic Guide
for Water & Wastewater Utilities1
Understand flooding threats, identity vulnerable assets, evaluate mitigation
options
Water Security Toolkit2
Evaluate & design rapid responses to water contamination incidents
Water Resiliency Action Planner
Kit1
Convene meetings with key players in water utility planning to discuss roles
& responsibilities during water service interruptions
Water/Wastewater Agency
Response Networks (WARN)1
Intra-state network of utilities for effective sharing of local water sector
resources during disasters or service disruptions
My Environment1
Integrate community enviromnental & health data with maps based on a
user's location; "Shout out" to report on local enviromnental efforts
I-WASTE3
Estimate types of debris, select appropriate waste management after a disaster
Waste Estimation Support tool
(WEST)1
Estimate waste from a wide-area radiological incident as a function of
selected decontamination approaches
Municipal Solid Waste Decision
Support Tool4
Solid waste planners evaluate enviromnental aspects & cost of integrated
waste management strategies
Integrated Climate & Land Use
Scenarios1
Estimate housing density, population, impervious surfaces for climate
scenarios
Enviromnental Justice View1
Create online maps to view factors affecting community enviromnental health
1 Via search on httr>://www.et>a.sov 2htft>s://software.sandia.eov//trac 3httt>://www2.ersweb.com/bdrtool/losin.asr)
'httns://msw dst.rti.ors/ Tools mav reauire Dcrmission to access and trainins to use.
11

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Brian Pickard from EPA's Office of Water, Water Security Division, gave a presentation on
strategies and tools EPA's Office of Water (OW) has produced to help water utilities increase
resilience. He described how utilities had taken steps to prevent damage from natural disasters
and other hazards through mitigation and training. One tool to aid them in doing so is OW's
Flood Resilience Guide that walks them through steps to
achieve resilience (Figure 8). Other OW tools include the
Community-Based Water Resiliency Tool (CBWR) and
Climate Resilience Evaluation & Awareness Tool (CREAT).
Steve Clark from EPA ORD NHSRC presented the
American Water Works Association approach to risk and
resilience management of water and wastewater systems
with a focus on proposed resilience standards.
A joint presentation on decontamination, cleanup, and waste
management entitled Preparedness & Resiliency in an "All-
Hazards" Environment was given by Dr. Paul Lemieux,
HSRP, Susan Thorneloe, EPA ORD's National Risk
Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL), and Mario
Ierardi, Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response
(OSWER) Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery
(ORCR). Waste management is an important part of
resilience that involves integrating many processes and
stakeholders. Pre-disaster waste management planning can
facilitate post-incident recovery. Tools such as the Incident
Waste Assessment & Tonnage Estimator (I-WASTE) can aid
^ „	disaster debris management efforts. Areas for waste
Improving Flood Resilience ... . ,.	, , , ,	, ,
resilience indicators to be developed may include community
preparedness, contamination detection and spread, decontamination, and waste management.
Dr. Roy Sidle, then at the EPA ORD National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) in Athens,
Ga., gave a presentation on Ecosystem Sustainability and Resilience in the Context of Natural
Disasters. Resilience addresses the ability of ecosystems to absorb change and disturbance and
adapt to small-scale perturbations. Ecosystem resilience accommodates a range of natural and
anthropogenic stressors and needs to be considered to frame sustainability assessments. Chronic
anthropogenic pressures (air pollution, climate change, soil degradation) can push resilient
systems to tipping points. It is a challenge to assess sustainability in ecosystems that are
predisposed to episodic natural disasters that can reset landscapes in the long-term. To be
effective, sustainability assessments must embrace the dynamic nature of the environment.
Gelena Constantine, EPA ORD's Office of Science Policy, reported on NEJAC Community
Resiliency in EJIndustrial Waterfront Communities Work Group. Industrial waterfront
communities face environmental justice issues as a result of climate change. They already face
risks from hazardous waste sites and environmental contaminants. Flooding and sea level rise
may increase environmental risks to vulnerable populations. Best practices can be identified and
Step 1. Understand the
Threat of Flooding
Step 2. Identify
Vulnerable Assets &
Determine Consequences
Step 3. Identify and
Evaluate Mitigation
Measures
Step 4. Develop Plan to
Implement Mitigation
Measures
ฆ ฆ*
Figure 8: Process for
12

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carried out to promote community resiliency and environmental justice in industrial waterfront
communities.
In an afternoon discussion, workshop participants identified several potential purposes and
audiences for a CERI. Communities could conduct self-assessments to benchmark conditions
and track improvements. Researchers could identify tipping points where environmental systems
lose resilience. Federal stakeholders could identify funding targets and measure policy outcomes.
Dr. Keely Maxwell gave a presentation on The Science of Resilience Indicators. An index can be
built to measure the attributes of a resilient system. Social and environmental indicators can be
used to measure resilience. Challenges include identifying appropriate metrics and data.
Susan Julius, EPA ORD's National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA), discussed
Urban Resilience to Climate Change: Framework and Indicators. The Urban Climate Resilience
Assessment Framework was created as a tool that uses indicators to evaluate urban resilience.
This tool was piloted in two communities, Worcester, Mass., and Washington, D.C. Qualitative
and quantitative indicators were tested with community leaders. The qualitative indicators
provided the richest source of information on resilience. The findings from the pilots will be used
to refine the tool and methodology for national application.
Dr. Joseph Fiksel, Executive Director, Center for Resilience at Ohio State University and at the
time a special advisor for Sustainability in EPA's ORD, presented^ Systems Approach to
Sustainability and Resilience. Dr. Fiksel discussed how resilience and sustainability are distinct
system capacities (Figure 9). He demonstrated the application of the Triple Value Model, a
systems approach, to the Narragansett Bay Pilot Project.
L Resilience is the capacity to:
•	overcome unexpected problems
•	adapt to change (e.g., sea level rise) " :
•	prepare for and survive catastrophes
Figure 9: Resilience & Sustainability, Distinct System Capacities
Dr. Tarsha Eason from EPA ORD NRMRL finished the session by presenting on Sustainability
Indicators. Sustainability indicators provide a means of tracking the social, economic and
environmental condition of a system. Indicators are critical to sustainability decision making,
monitoring and management. Dr. Eason highlighted the Database of Sustainability Indicators and
Indices (DOSII), a database of sustainability indicators and indices from a variety of sources.
Workshop participants compiled a preliminary list of qualitative and quantitative resilience
indicators. These indicators address social and environmental trends and conditions. There was
Sustainability is the capacity for:
•	human health and well being
•	economic vitality and prosperity
ซenvironmental resource abundance
continuity
fitness
13

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convergence around using a systems approach to resilience indicators research. For example,
waste resilience indicators could help identify the socioeconomic and environmental challenges
of handling disaster debris and waste. Water resilience indicators could measure trends across the
production and distribution system. Participants agreed that indicators should be compelling to
community stakeholders, lead to action, and be easily measured. They advocated building a
CERI on existing EPA science, including many of the resilience tools that have been developed
for homeland security, climate change adaptation or disaster recovery. Workshop participants
also identified an emerging need for research that addresses environmental justice and resilience.
Achieving resilience will require long-term planning and implementation. A CERI can support
research and planning to help communities to achieve environmental resilience and sustain
critical community values after a disaster.
Workshop II Highlights
The vision of the second workshop was to explore how EPA and other federal partners could use
a CERI as an analytical and research planning tool to identify ways to strengthen the resilience of
communities to natural and anthropogenic disasters. The goals for the second CERI Workshop
were to build on the enthusiasm of Workshop I, expand the network of experts, share expertise
and identify assets, needs, and opportunities for CERI research and products.
Community environmental resilience involves minimizing and mitigating the environmental and
human health risks associated with
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Figure 10: All-Hazard Threats to Health &
Environment
Adapted from U.S. EPA. 2011. Refining EPA's Strategic Approach
to Homeland Security.
disasters, quickly returning critical
environmental and ecological services
to functionality after a disaster, and
applying this learning process to reduce
vulnerabilities and risks to future
incidents. It supports the local economy,
well-being, and quality of life. Dr. Greg
Sayles, the Acting Director, EPA ORD
NHSRC and HSRP National Program
Director, noted during his welcome that
environmental resilience has been a
theme running through HSRP's work
for the last several years. The HSRP is
exploring new ways to apply the latest
science and research on resilience to
CBRN incidents to "all-hazard" threats
(Figure 10), which can aid communities
at risk from natural disasters.
Brendan Doyle provided a common
framework by outlining the need for a
CERI and how federal, state, and
14

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community stakeholders could utilize the CERI. It could be used to aid decision making about
how to prioritize issues and allocate resources effectively to achieve resilience goals.
In the following session, Dr. Peter Jutro presented Exploring the environmental "e " in resilience.
He discussed environmental issues that arose in recent disasters. Disasters can increase exposure
to existing and new environmental contaminants. They require management of waste and debris
and raise environmental justice concerns. They disrupt critical services such as water and
wastewater treatment and impact ecological systems such as wetlands and streams that provide
ecological services and amenities. Federal agencies can use comprehensive, forward-looking,
and science-based analysis to improve resilience of environmental and ecological systems.
Dr. Kris Ludwig, Natural Hazards Mission Area, US Geological Survey (USGS) presented
Developing disaster scenarios using the coupled human-natural system. She introduced the
coupled human-natural systems (CHNS) framework used by the Strategic Sciences Group at the
U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) to develop scenarios of the cascading effects of Hurricane
Sandy on coastal communities. First-tier consequences included increased voluntary activity,
altered risk perception, and ecological change. Resilience is best applied at the full system level.
Dr. Keely Maxwell presented What is community environmental resilience? EPA workshop
results. She summarized the outcomes of the May workshop and raised questions for the
participants in this workshop. What is environmental resilience? What indicators should be
included in a CERI? How do we build a scientifically valid, usable index? Who will use a CERI
and in what form? Dr. Maxwell emphasized the point that each organization represented
addresses some part of environmental resilience now, and her hope was that by working together,
the team could build a CERI that would be useful and valuable to communities.
With Dr. Maxwell's charge to collaborate on building a CERI, the participants broke into small
groups to discuss how to improve collaboration across agencies and organizations to achieve
environmental resilience. Legislation, regulations, and organizational structures are among some
of the challenges agencies face in doing so. Convening workshops, exercises, and other face-to-
face meetings is one way to improve collaboration. Workshops such as this one highlight
opportunities among agencies and encourage potential partnerships and linkages.
Dr. Angel Hsu, Director, Environmental Performance Measurement Program, Yale Center for
Environmental Law and Policy, talked about Environmental index development for policy and
planning. She introduced the Yale EPI as a global scorecard that provides insight into the
world's collective impacts on the major environmental issues of our time. The EPI measures how
well countries perform on high priority environmental issues in two broad policy areas:
protection of human health from environmental harm and protection of ecosystems. EPI
indicators can be used to measure how close countries are to meeting internationally established
targets or how they compare relative to the best performers. The EPI gives access to important
environmental data organized in a way that is easily understandable, useful to policymakers, and
drives productive competition.
15

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Dr. Hsu walked participants through the phases of index development (Figure 11) and gave
several recommendations for developing a CERI. The team should identify, and continuously
revisit, the audience, purpose, and goals of a
CERI. It should inspire communities to collect
data. A communications plan should be
developed from the outset. Communication
about environmental indicators is a long term
process. A primary focus should be to develop
common language with other stakeholders.
Dr. Seema Schappelle, EPA ORD NCEA,
presented a brief overview of the Report on the
Environment. The ROE is EPA's comprehensive source of national-level scientific indicators
that describe the condition of and trends in the nation's environment and human health. ROE
indicators help answer questions of critical importance to EPA's mission to protect human health
and the environment. The 86 indicators show observed trends in five areas - air, water, land,
human health, and ecological condition. Sustainability indicators in the ROE measure trends in
consumption of natural resources, i.e., energy use, freshwater withdrawals, hazardous waste, and
municipal solid waste.
The participants broke into thematic groups to identify which indicators EPA might include in a
CERI. The small groups were waste/energy, water/energy, environmental health/environmental
justice and ecological systems. The goal of the discussion was to collaborate on the scientific
process to establish indicators most appropriate for developing a CERI. All the groups
underlined the importance of working with communities while developing resilience indicators.
Dr. Gavin Smith, Executive Director, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for
the Study of Hazards and Disasters, and Executive Director of the Department of Homeland
Security's Coastal Hazards Center of Excellence, presented Disaster planning and decision-
making. He talked about challenges, opportunities, and strategies to link natural hazards risk
management and climate change adaptation through planning. Dr. Smith echoed the advice from
workgroups to join forces with communities. He said the importance of collaborative governance
cannot be stressed enough. Governmental, non-governmental, and private sector organizations
all need to be prepared with up-to-date information about hazard vulnerability and disaster
resources, to be linked with effective communication networks, and to be experienced in
working together. Good vertical connectivity needs to be established between national policy and
local plans. While higher level goals are important, empowering people and supporting
flexibility at the local level is crucial.
Planning for climate change adaptation and natural hazards risk management can lead to
improved use of existing planning tools and processes and scenario-based planning as also
mentioned by Dr. Ludwig. Planners can act as coalition builders integrating risk reduction,
sustainable development, resilience and adaptation. Dr. Smith cautioned not to discount the
influence of pre-event conditions such as culture, wealth/poverty, policy frameworks and
institutions as well as some of the broad issues underpinning disasters.
Index Development Process
1.	Define Objectives & Principles
2.	Prepare the Process
3.	Design a Framework
4.	Evaluate Data Quality
5.	Construct an Index
Figure 11: EPI Index Development
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The participants used two different scenarios, Tornado Alley and Hurricane Sandy, as
hypothetical situations to build a CERI for disaster decision making. Several themes emerged to
assist the CERI team as it moves forward in developing an index. First and foremost was the
need to finalize and communicate the definition of community environmental resilience,
including input from communities. The CERI team should implement a communications strategy
that clearly defines the goals and the boundaries of its resiliency work. For specific indicators,
participants' advice was to select those that are forward looking yet flexible enough to meet the
individual needs of different communities and to assure critical functionality.
17

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CERI Workshop Outcomes
1.	ENVIRONMENTAL RESILIENCE: Environmental resilience concepts and proposed
definition gained support from participants. Established its relevance to EPA's Mission,
Programs, Regions, and communities served by the Agency.
2.	RESILIENCE SCIENCE: Recognized the utility of a systems approach to researching
environmental resilience. Acknowledged the need to expand understanding of how
resilience relates to EPA's mission and strategic plan, in particular to sustainability and
environmental justice. Identified need to inventory EPA resilience tools.
3.	RESILIENCE INDICATORS: Produced preliminary list of environmental resilience
indicators. Refined criteria for developing resilience indicators that will be of utility to
communities and based on sound science and best available data.
4.	INDEX DEVELOPMENT: Advanced through the first three stages of index
development. Refined ideas for index format, CERI products and potential applications.
5.	ENVIRONMENTAL RESILIENCE NETWORK: Emergence of a collaborative and
enthusiastic network across EPA, other federal agencies, universities, and other
stakeholder organizations.
18

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Next Steps
1.	RESILIENCE TOOLS: Conduct inventory of EPA resiliency tools. Test application of
HSRP resiliency tools in all-hazards contexts. Participate in tech transfer opportunities
afforded by EPA and other ongoing resilience efforts (e.g., EPA's Making a Visible
Difference in Communities initiative, National Institute of Standards and Technology's
(NIST) Community Resilience Planning Guide, HUD's National Disaster Resilience
Competition, Rockefeller Foundation's 100 Resilient Cities program, United Nations
Office for Disaster Risk Reduction's RISE Initiative).
2.	RESILIENCE INDICATORS: Leverage EPA's sustainability, environmental justice,
human health, and other environmental indicators and performance measures (e.g.
DOSII, Human Well-Being Index). Evaluate social, economic, and environmental
metrics and data sources for measuring resilience qualitatively and quantitatively. Test
indicators in communities with Regional and Program partners. Discuss potential for
incorporating resilience indicators into other EPA platforms (e.g., Report on the
Environment), climate change adaptation plans, and interagency collaborations.
3.	INDEX DEVELOPMENT: Continue to follow the index development process laid out by
the Yale EPI. Identify CERI audience, principles, and goals. Establish a communications
strategy. Work with community stakeholders to determine relevance of a checklist or
dashboard that communities could tailor to their particular environmental and hazard risk
vulnerabilities, community composition, and values. Engage communities in developing
self-assessment tools to benchmark conditions and measure progress in strengthening
environmental resilience. Integrate tools into other EPA platforms and resilience projects.
Establish procedures for updating a CERI as necessary.
4.	ENVIRONMENTAL RESILIENCE NETWORK: Expand and maintain the network of
collaborators who participated in the workshops. Clarify roles, responsibilities, and
contributions to EPA and interagency resilience efforts. Revisit and refine the definition
of community environmental resilience. Share experiences applying environmental
resilience concepts such as conducting emergency response exercises for natural disasters
and homeland security incidents. Continue to exchange information, best practices, and
new ideas.
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Afterword
Since the workshops, EPA and other public and private organizations have undertaken new
resilience initiatives. NIST has drafted a Community Resilience Planning Guide. The State of
Colorado now has the Colorado Resiliency Framework. EPA's Office of Research and
Development has several ongoing resilience projects. The CERI project is now part of HSRP's
research action plan. EPA will soon publish its resiliency tools report. The CERI team is
inventorying resilience indicators from the disaster literature and environmental indicators from
EPA and other sources to establish a short list of community environmental resilience indictors.
It is continuing to refine the audience, principles, and goals of a CERI. Tools based on resilience
science can help EPA, federal program partners, states, local governments, and civic
organizations address the environmental aspects of community disaster preparedness, response,
and recovery.
1USEPA 2014. Fiscal Year 2014-2018 EPA Strategic Plan.
http://www2.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2014-09/documents/epa strategic plan fvl4-18.pdf (last
accessed May 22. 2015)
11FEMA. Disaster Declarations by Year, https://www.fema.gov/disasters/grid/vear. (Last accessed May
22.2015)
III	National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NCDC. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate
Disasters: Overview, https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/billions/. (Last accessed May 22. 2015)
IV	Presidential Policy Directive / PPD-8: National Preparedness. 2011.
http://www.dhs.gov/presidential-policv-directive-8-national-preparedness (Last accessed May 22. 2015)
v Executive Order 13653: Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change. 2013.
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsvs/pkg/FR-2013-ll-06/pdf/2Q13-26785.pdf. (Last accessed May 22. 2015)
V1 Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force. 2013 .Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Strategy: Stronger
Communities, a Resilient Region, portal .hud. gov/hudportal/HUD ?src=/sandyrebuilding (Last accessed
May 22, 2015)
™ Report figures were adapted from workshop slides shared by presenters unless otherwise noted.
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Appendix A: Participants in the CERI Workshops
Greg Arthaud
U.S. Forest Service
Matthew Bates
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Karima Benbih
Virginia Tech
Elizabeth Bevan
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Charlena Bowling
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Carole Braverman
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Deborah Brosnan
The Brosnan Center
Joshua Brown
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Michael Burns
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Kevin Bush
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Adam Carpenter
American Water Works Association
Joe Casola
Center for Climate and Energy Solutions
Steve Clark
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Christopher Clement
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Marlene Cole
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Margaret Conomos
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Sandra Connors
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Gelena Constantine
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Elizabeth Corona
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Sarah Devaney-Ice
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Brendan Doyle
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
David Doyle
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Mark Durno
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
TarshaEason
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Hiba Ernst
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Laura Farris
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
John Ferris
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Joseph Fiksel
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Cate Fox-Lent
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Rebecca French
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Ahjond Garmestani
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Annette Gatchett
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Kiza Gates
U.S. Geological Survey
Andrew Geller
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Angela Gladwell
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Michael Gill
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Sophie Godfrey-McKee
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Jim Goodrich
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Tara Greaver
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Verle Hansen
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
21

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Matthew Harwell
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Terra Haxton
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Alan Hecht
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Brooke Hemming
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Jonathan Herrmann
Self; former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Anhthu Hoang
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Angel Hsu
Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy
Marguerite Huber
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Hamilton Humes
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Mario Ierardi
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Annie Jarabek
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Laura Jenkins
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Susan Julius
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Peter Jutro
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Darshan Karwat
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Rabi Kieber
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Fred Krimgold
Virginia Tech
Alex Lan
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Ron Landy
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Meredith Lassiter
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Charles Lee
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Paul Lemieux
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Eric Letvin
National Security Council
Alan Lindquist
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Igor Linkov
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center
Danelle Lobdell
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Patricia Longstaff
Syracuse University
Kris Ludwig
U.S. Geological Survey
Jennifer Lyke
U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Sunaree Marshall
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Lahne Mattas-Curry
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Keely Maxwell
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Ron McCormick
U.S. Bureau of Land Management
Melissa McCullough
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Duncan Mcintosh
University of Rhode Island
Tanya Medley
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Aubrey Miller
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Nat Miullo
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Patricia Murphy
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Regan Murray
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
James Nachbaur
U.S. Department of Energy
Tonya Nichols
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
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Mike Nye
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Robert Nyman
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Leanne Nurse
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Marie O'Shea
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Jill Parikh
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Doug Pabst
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Cayce Parrish
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Heidi Paulsen
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Donna Perla
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Cynthia Peurifoy
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Brian Pickard
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Montira Pongsiri
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
John Rabin
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Tim Reilly
U.S. Geological Survey
Victoria Robinson
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Suzi Ruhl
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Richard Rupert
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Kathryn Saterson
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Gregory Sayles
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Seema Schappelle
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Denice Shaw
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Roy Sidle
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Matt Small
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Gavin Smith
University of North Carolina
Center for the Study of Natural Hazards & Disasters
Lisa Smith
U.S. Environmental
Emily Snyder
U.S. Environmental
Karen Sullivan
U.S. Environmental
Kevin Summers
U.S. Environmental
Megan Susman
U.S. Environmental
Bob Thompson
U.S. Environmental
Susan Thorneloe
U.S. Environmental
Mike Troyer
U.S. Environmental
Kenneth Walker
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Barb Walton
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Eli Walton
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Jessica Wieder
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Robert Wood
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Elaine Wright
Federal Consulting Group
Cynthia Yund
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Alisa Zomer
Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy
Protection Agency
Protection Agency
Protection Agency
Protection Agency
Protection Agency
Protection Agency
Protection Agency
Protection Agency
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Appendix B: Agendas for CERI Workshops
Community Environmental Resilience Index Workshop I Agenda
Vision: EPA and other federal partners use a Community Environmental Resilience Index (CERI) as an
analytical and research planning tool to identify ways to strengthen communities' resilience to natural and
anthropogenic disasters.
Goal: Share expertise and work underway to identify EPA's assets, research needs, and opportunities in
the realm of community resilience. Explore CERI development concepts.
•	Participants will be able to apply community resilience science to their work and gain a better
understanding of the relationship between sustainability and resilience.
•	Establish agency interest in and potential uses of a CERI to support resilience and sustainability
research and EPA's work in community disaster preparedness and recovery.
•	Produce a conceptual framework of CERI purposes, objectives, audiences, scope, scale, &
potential indicators to present to external scientific experts & other federal stakeholders.
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
8:30 - 9:00 Welcome: Dr. Gregory Sayles, Acting Director, ORD NHSRC
•	Introductions and Workshop Orientation
o Elaine Wright, Facilitator
•	CERI concepts & development
o Brendan Doyle, Senior Advisor, ORD NHSRC
9:00 - 10:00	Session I: Community resilience science & disaster response
•	Community resilience science: definitions & systems model
o Dr. Keely Maxwell, AAAS Fellow, ORD NHSRC
•	Community resilience in action @EPA: Disaster response
o Doug Pabst, Chief of EPA Region 2 Sandy Recovery Green Team
Q&A; Plenary discussion on community resilience, EPA mission & values
Outcomes:
10:00-10:15
BREAK
10:15-11:30
Breakout Discussion I: Community resilience to disasters
•	What aspects of community resilience resonate best with your work?
•	How might EPA apply the concept to different types of disasters?
11:30-11:45
Report out
11:45-12:45
LUNCH
12:45 - 1:15 pm	Sustainability and Resiliency: Dr. Peter Jutro, Acting Associate Administrator
for Homeland Security; Dr. Alan Hecht, Director of Sustainable Development,
ORD
Q&A; Plenary discussion on synergies and trade-offs.
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1:15-3:15 pm	Session II: Community environmental resilience
•	Water
o Brian Pickard, OW WSD
o Stephen Clark, ORD NHSRC
•	Decontamination, clean-up, waste management
o Dr. Paul Lemieux, ORD NHSRC; Susan Thorneloe, ORD NRMRL;
Mario Ierardi, OSWER ORCR
BREAK
•	Disasters and environmental resilience
o Dr. Roy Sidle, ORD NERL
•	Resilience in EJ industrial waterfront communities
o Gelena Constantine, ORD OSP
Q&A; Plenary discussion on community environmental resilience.
3:15 - 4:30 pm	Breakout Discussion II: CERI
• Purposes, objectives, audiences, scope, scale for a CERI
4:30 - 5:00pm	Report-out & Wrap-up
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
8:30 - 9:45	Session III: Indicators for Sustainability & Resiliency
•	The science of resilience indicators
o Dr. Keely Maxwell, AAAS Fellow, EPA in ORD NHSRC
•	Indicators of urban resilience to climate change
o Susan Julius, ORD NCEA
•	Sustainability & resilience indicators
o Dr. Joseph Fiksel, ORD NRMRL
o Dr. Tarsha Eason, ORD NRMRL
Q&A; Plenary discussion on indicators.
9:45 - 10:00	BREAK
10:00 - 11:15	Session III Breakout Discussion
1.	Which indicators seem most relevant for a CERI?
2.	What should criteria be for selecting indicators?
3.	How do sustainability and resilience indicators overlap?
11:15 - 12:00	Workshop Summary
•	Report-out, Next Steps
o Brendan Doyle, Sr. Advisor, ORD NHSRC; Elaine Wright, Facilitator
•	Closing Remarks
o Dr. Gregory Sayles, Acting Director, ORD NHSRC
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Community Environmental Resilience Index Workshop II Agenda
Vision: EPA and other federal partners use a Community Environmental Resilience Index (CERI) as an
analytical and planning tool to identify ways to strengthen communities' resilience to environmental
impacts and risks from natural and anthropogenic disasters.
Goal: Share expertise to identify assets, needs, and opportunities in community environmental resilience.
Assess CERI development with scientific experts and other federal stakeholders. Build on EPA's recent
workshop results to refine CERI indicators & CERI structure (purpose, audience, objectives, scale, scope).
Outcomes:
•	Participants will develop a common understanding of the importance of community
environmental resilience to disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation.
•	Participants will refine key indicators to use in a CERI.
•	Participants will establish how to structure a CERI to maximize its utility for community
planning, disaster decision-making, and associated research.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
1:00 - 1:30 pm	Welcome to EPA: Dr. Gregory Sayles, Acting Director of the National Homeland
Security Research Center, Office of Research & Development, EPA
•	Introductions, workshop orientation
o Elaine Wright, Facilitator
o Brendan Doyle, EPA CERI team
1:30 - 2:30 pm	Session 1: Exploring the environmental "e's" in resilience
•	Dr. Peter Jutro, Acting Associate Administrator for Homeland Security, EPA
Q&A; plenary discussion
2:30 - 2:45 pm	BREAK
2:45 - 3:15 pm Session 2: Developing disaster scenarios using the coupled human-
natural system
•	Dr. Kris Ludwig, Staff Scientist, USGS
Q&A
3:15 - 3:45 pm	Session 3: What is community environmental resilience? EPA workshop
results
•	Dr. Keely Maxwell, AAAS Fellow, EPA CERI team
Q&A
3:45 - 4:45 p.m.	Breakout discussion I: Community environmental resilience and your work
4:45 - 5:00	Wrap-up
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Wednesday, July 23, 2014
8:30 - 8:45	Recap from Day I
• CERI team
8:45 - 9:45	Environmental index development for policy and planning
• Dr. Angel Hsu, Director, Environmental Performance Measurement Program,
Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy
Q&A, plenary discussion
9:45 - 11:30 am	Breakout discussion II: Environmental resilience indicators for a CERI
• Test drive indicators
11:30- 12:00 p.m. Report-out and expert commentary
• Dr. Joseph Fiksel, Special Assistant for Sustainability, Office of Research and
Development, EPA
12:00-1:15 pm	LUNCH
1:15- 2:15 pm	Disaster planning and decision-making
• Dr. Gavin Smith, Executive Director, Department of Homeland Security,
Coastal Hazards Center of Excellence; Associate Research Professor,
Department of City and Regional Planning, University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill
Q&A, plenary discussion
1:15-3:15 pm	Breakout discussion III: structuring a CERI for disaster decision-making
•	Test drive POSAS (purpose, objectives, scope, audience, scale)
3:15 - 3:45 pm	Report-out and expert reactions
3:45 - 4:00 pm	Wrap-up
•	Next Steps
o Brendan Doyle, EPA; Elaine Wright, Facilitator
•	Closing Remarks
o Dr. Alan Hecht, Director of Sustainable Development, Office of Research
and Development, EPA
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Appendix C: Definitions and Descriptions of Resilience
Policy
•	Executive Order 13653: Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change:
The ability to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to changing conditions and withstand, respond
to, and recover rapidly from disruptions.
•	Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) / PPD-8: National Preparedness: The ability to adapt to
changing conditions and withstand and rapidly recover from disruption due to emergencies.
•	Presidential Policy Directive / PPD-21: Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience:
The ability to prepare for and adapt to changing conditions and withstand and recover rapidly
from disruptions. Resilience includes the ability to withstand and recover from deliberate
attacks, accidents, or naturally occurring threats or incidents.
•	National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC): The capacity for a community
to work together to: prevent (protect), anticipate (plan), adapt (absorb), and recover (reorganize)
from a physical, biological, chemical or natural hazardous threat. In addition a community must
maintain basic functions (infrastructure), and structures, strengthen its interconnectedness and
identity (culture), improve the health, social, political natural and economic quality of life
(sustainability) and guarantee equal access to emergency assistance, technical and financial
resources, and related information (transparency).
•	American Water Works Association J-100 working group: The ability of an asset or system
to withstand an attack or natural hazard without interruption of performing the asset or system's
function or, if the function is interrupted, to restore the function rapidly.
•	Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force: Ensuring a Regionally Coordinated, Resilient
Approach to Infrastructure Investment Regional Resilience by:
•	Collaborative work with partners across all levels of governance and the private sector
from neighboring communities and states
•	Promote regional and cross -jurisdictional approach to resilience
•	Identify interdependencies among and across geography and infrastructure systems
•	Compound individual investments towards shared goals; foster leadership
•	Build capacity
•	Share information and best practices on infrastructure resilience
•	Long-Term Efficacy and Fiscal Sustainability
•	Environmentally Sustainable and Innovative Solutions
•	Targeted Financial Incentives
•	Adherence to Resilience Performance Standards
Science
•	Pfefferbaum et al. 2007: Community resilience entails the ability of community members to
take deliberate, purposeful, and collective action to alleviate the detrimental effects of adverse
events.
•	National Research Council 2012: The ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from,
and more successfully adapt to adverse events.
Environmental
•	EPA Sustainability Research Program: Resilience is the capacity to overcome unexpected
problems, adapt to change (e.g., sea level rise), and prepare for and survive catastrophes.
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•	EPA Ecosystems Research Program: Resilience addresses the ability of ecosystems to absorb
change and disturbance and adapt to small-scale perturbations. It can also be viewed as the time
to recover from external stresses as well as the magnitude of stress a system can withstand
without moving to a new 'stable' state.
•	EPA Air & Climate Research Program: Urban resilience to climate change is the ability of a
city or urban system, through its risk reduction and response capacity capabilities, to reduce
exposure and sensitivity to, and recover and learn from gradual climatic changes or extreme
climate events for the purpose of retaining or improving the integrity of its infrastructure and
economic systems, vital environmental services and resources, the health and welfare of its
populations and communities, and the flexibility and diversity of its institutional and
governance structures.
•	CERI team: Resilience entails minimizing environmental risks associated with disasters,
quickly returning critical environmental and ecological services to functionality after an
incident, and applying this learning to reduce exposure and sensitivity to future incidents,
whether slow-moving or acute. Restoring estuaries and wetlands, proactively managing debris
and waste, and addressing interdependencies between water and energy systems, are all steps
that communities can take to strengthen their environmental resilience.
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Appendix D: CERI Breakout Discussion Questions
WORKSHOP I
Breakout Session I: Community resilience definitions and systems model
Q1. What aspects of the resilience definitions or model resonate best with your work?
Breakout Discussion I: EPA application of resilience in disaster scenarios
Q2. How might EPA apply the concept of community resilience to different types of disasters?
Breakout Discussion II: purpose objective scope audience scale of a CERI
Ql. What should the purpose(s) and objective(s) of a CERI be?
Q2. What should the scale of a CERI be?
Q3. Who should the audience(s) of a CERI be?
Q4. What should the scope of a CERI be?
Breakout Discussion III: Resilience and Sustainability Indicators
Ql. Which indicators seem most relevant for a CERI? Are there other indicators that should be
included? Who should be involved in this process?
Q2. What should criteria for selecting indicators be?
WORKSHOP II
Breakout Discussion I: Environmental Resilience
Ql. What aspects of environmental resilience do you address in your work?
Q2. How can we improve collaboration across agencies & organizations to achieve environmental
resilience?
Breakout Discussion II: CERI Indicators
Ql. Which indicators should we include in a CERI? How might we rank them in order of
importance?
Q2. What other indicators should we add to the list?
Q3. What social indicators should be included in a CERI?
Breakout discussion III: Structuring a CERI for disaster decision-making
Ql. Read through your scenario on how you might apply a CERI. How would you begin to combine
indicators to build a CERI?
Q2. What other purposes and objectives would a CERI meet? Or not meet?
Q3. How could a CERI aid disaster decision-making & planning situations you encounter in your
work?
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Appendix E: Community Environmental Resilience Indicators
Preliminary list of proposed indicators of community environmental indicators discussed at the
workshops.
Inclusion of environmental stakeholders
in preparedness tabletops or scenario
exercises
Pre-incident waste management plans in
place
Landfill capacity
Tree canopy coverage
Curbside recycling program
Number of Safe Drinking Water Act
(SDWA) violations
Mutual aid agreements among utilities
Water utilities' emergency response plan
(scale of 1 to 5, from having no existing
plan to having conducted extensive
exercises)
Percent wastewater infiltration and inflow
Green infrastructure
Age of infrastructure
Average hours of
energy outage in major storms
Ease of egress from potentially
contaminated areas
Percent population below poverty level
USPS vacancy rates
Hazmat capability of local responders
Local government debt to revenue ratio
Household access to equity
Environmental stressors present before a
disaster
Park visitation rates
Urban gardens
Populations affected by asthma, diabetes
HVAC systems
Construction capacity
Collaborative governance
Environmental knowledge and actions
House ownership
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Appendix F: CERI Workshop I Technical Brief
EPA PURSUES INTEREST IN DEVELOPING COMMUNITY
ENVIRONMENTAL RESILIENCE INDICATORS AND INDICES
Introduction
Environmental resilience includes minimizing environmental
Community Environmental
Resiliency Index (CERI) Workshop I
hazards and public health risks from disasters, facilitating
restoration of critical environmental services following a
disaster, and building back in a way that mitigates future
adverse impacts. Because local social networks, civic
Vision: EPA, federal, tribal, state & local
partners develop indicators & indices as
analytical & planning tools to help
communities protect public health & the
environment by identifying ways to
strengthen their resilience to natural &
human-made disasters.
organizations, and municipal services play key roles, we
approach environmental resilience at the community scale
Community resiliency supports long-term sustainability.
Community environmental resilience indicators and indices
can help communities conduct self-assessments, develop
corrective actions, and measure progress towards attaining
their environmental resilience goals.
Goal: Share expertise and work underway to
identify EPA's assets, research needs, &
opportunities to develop relevant, actionable,
& useful indicators & indices.
EPA's Homeland Security Research Program (HSRP) is
working with national experts to develop community environmental resilience indicators and indices to
identify public health and environmental vulnerabilities and assess ways to mitigate future disaster risks.
EPA held an internal workshop May 6-7, 2014, to pursue interest in developing such indicators and indices.
Its aim was to identify assets, interests, and needs. The workshop was held concurrently in Cincinnati,
Research Triangle Park, Washington, D.C., and via webinar. It was attended by EPA staff from the Office of
Research and Development, Programs, and Regions. The results of that workshop are presented in this brief.
Community environmental resilience involves protecting public health and the environment by reducing
vulnerabilities to disasters and developing the capacity to minimize health and environmental risks. By doing
so, communities increase their potential to recover quickly from disasters, including homeland security
incidents, and sustain resources they depend on for well-being. As climate change amplifies the risks of
extreme weather events, community environmental resilience becomes a key component of climate change
adaptation. The National Research Council (NRC) report Disaster Resilience: A National Imperative
recognizes the need for improved ways to measure community resilience to disasters (NRC 2012).
Researchers have proposed socioeconomic, demographic, and health indicators of community resilience, but
there is no established, scientifically vetted and validated set of indicators. Also, none of these efforts has
focused on community environmental resilience indicators. EPA's HSRP is addressing this gap.
EPA's HSRP primarily addresses two key areas: water and wastewater infrastructure protection, and
community cleanup and recovery. EPA researchers and program managers have produced tools and
technologies that communities can use to enhance their environmental resilience. EPA has also developed
science-based, environmental and sustainability indicators in its Report on the Environment (EPA 2014).
HSRP researchers are seeking ways to leverage this science to develop resiliency indicators. This work
builds on efforts already underway across the federal government. It can feed into EPA resilience initiatives
and support interagency efforts under Presidential Policy Directive (PPD)-8, PPD-21, the national climate
action plan, and national response and disaster recovery frameworks. Community environmental resilience
indicators can be incorporated into a self-assessment checklist or full-scale index. Decision-makers from the
Why Community Environmental Resilience Indicators?
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public, private, and civic sectors could use these to identify areas of concern and allocate resources to
strengthen resilience to natural disasters, technological accidents, and homeland security incidents.
What is Community Environmental Resilience?
Workshop participants defined community environmental resilience as minimizing environmental risks
associated with disasters, quickly restoring critical environmental and ecological services after a disaster, and
applying this learning process to reduce vulnerabilities and risks to future incidents. It includes reducing
vulnerability to disasters, that is, minimizing exposure and sensitivity to disasters. It also includes increasing
the capacity of environmental systems to return after an incident and building back in ways that mitigate
future impacts. Community environmental resilience indicators and indices can help communities gauge their
capacity to withstand disruption and reduce disaster impacts. Indicators of resilience might include the
capacity of a wastewater treatment plant to process storm flow, the capacity of wetlands to provide natural
flood protection, and knowledge of the environmental contaminants communities might be exposed to as the
result of a disaster. Restoring estuaries and wetlands, proactively managing debris and waste, and addressing
interdependences between water and energy systems are all steps that communities can take to strengthen
their environmental resilience.
Workshop Outcome: Environmental Resilience Science & Tools
Workshop participants proposed establishing a scientific basis for investigating environmental resilience by
adapting a coupled human-natural systems model. They discussed how characteristics of resilient infrastructure
such as redundancy, robustness, and connectivity apply to environmental systems. Participants examined how
the index development process laid out by Yale's Environmental Performance Index might be adapted to
create a resilience index. They advocated building on existing EF
resilience tools developed for homeland security, climate change
adaptation and disaster recovery (Table 1). They recommended
adapting EPA environmental and climate change resilience
indicators for a CERI.
EPA scientists posit that resilience to disasters is necessary for
long term sustainability, and are investigating the relationship
between resilience and sustainability. EPA's Database of
Sustainability Indicators and Indices (DOSII) provides a tool for
considering how sustainability and resilience indicators are interrelated.
Workshop participants also identified an emerging need for research that addresses environmental justice and
resilience. Communities with economically disadvantaged or marginalized populations located in proximity to
environmental hazards could be disproportionately affected by disasters. For example, disasters generate large
volumes of waste and debris. Regional coordination is required to support communities' capacity to manage
this waste, and that debris disposal does not affect already overburdened populations. Fully considering a
disaster's environmental life cycle, that is, the environmental consequences of preparedness, mitigation,
response, and recovery, is necessary when assessing resilience.
Sustainability is the capacity for:
•	Human health and well-being
•	Economic vitality and prosperity
•	Resource abundance and quality
Resilience is the capacity to:
•	Overcome unexpected problems
•	Adapt to change
•	Prepare for and survive catastrophe
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Table 2 EPA Resilience Tools Discussed at CERI Workshop
Resilience Tool
Purpose
Climate Resilience Evaluation and
Awareness Tool (CREAT)1
Water utilities explore climate change impacts & adaptation strategies
CANARY & TEVA-SPOT2
Detection & early warning for contaminants & service disruption in
drinking water distribution systems
Community-Based Water
Resiliency Tool (CBWR)1
Water utilities gauge current preparedness efforts. Community awareness
of including water sector in emergency planning.
Emergency Water Supply planning
guidance1
Guidance on how to plan for disruptions in drinking water services
Flood Resilience: A Basic Guide for
Water & Wastewater Utilities1
Understand flooding threats, identify vulnerable assets, evaluate
mitigation options
Water Security Toolkit2
Evaluate & design rapid responses to water contamination incidents
Water Resiliency Action Planner
Kit1
Convene meetings with key players in water utility planning to discuss
roles & responsibilities during water service interruptions
Watc r/Waste w ate r Agency
Response Networks (WARN)1
fntra-state network of utilities that share local water sector resources
during disasters or service disruptions
My Environment1
Integrate community environmental & health data into maps; "Shout out"
reports on local environmental efforts
I-WASTE3
Estimate types of debris, select appropriate waste management after a
disaster
Waste Estimation Support tool
(WEST)1
Estimate waste from a wide-area radiological incident as a function of
selected decontamination approaches
Municipal Solid Waste Decision
Support Tool (MSW-DST)4
Solid waste planners evaluate environmental aspects & cost of integrated
waste management strategies
Integrated Climate & Land Use
Scenarios1
Estimate housing density, population, impervious surfaces for climate
scenarios
Environmental Justice (EJ) View1
Create online maps to view factors affecting community environmental
health
lvia search on www.eDa.20v 2htti)s://software.sandia.20v//trac 3htti)://www2.er2web.com/bdrtool/lo2in.asi)
4htti)s://mswdst.rti.or2/. Tools mav reauire ncrmission to access and trainin2 to use.
Workshop Outcome: Developing INDICATORS for an INDEX
After reviewing currently available resilience tools, workshop participants compiled a preliminary list of
qualitative and quantitative environmental resilience indicators (Table 2). Participants also agreed that
indicators should be compelling to community stakeholders, easily measured, and lead to action. Since
resilience involves interactions across complex social, economic, and environmental systems, these indicators
cover social and environmental trends and conditions. For example, environmental, economic, and
demographic data together may highlight the challenges of handling wastes produced by a disaster.
34

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Table 3 Community Environmental Resilience Indicators Proposed at the Workshop
Water resilience
Waste resilience
Practiced emergency response plans
Household recycling rates
Active watershed association
Percent population below poverty line
Access to emergency water supplies
Available landfill capacity
Ratio of municipal debt to revenue
Number of Superfund sites per square mile
Presence of mutual aid agreements with
Scenarios conducted with stakeholders to pre-plan waste &
neighboring communities
debris management
Contamination warning systems in place
Familiarity with debris disposal options
Workshop participants identified several potential purposes and audiences for developing community
environmental resilience indicators and indices:
•	Communities conduct self-assessments to benchmark current conditions, capabilities and needs.
•	Communities take corrective action based on indicators and track improvements.
•	Researchers identify thresholds where environmental and ecological systems gain or lose resilience.
•	Federal program managers identify funding opportunities and measure policy outcomes.
•	Audiences include federal, state, and local agencies, and stakeholders such as urban planners,
businesses, and others involved in disaster planning, mitigation, response, and recovery.
Achieving community environmental resilience will require long-term planning and implementation. EPA's
CERI project team aims to develop environmental indicators and contribute the best available science and
research that can support community environmental resiliency. Its next step is to host a second workshop in
July, 2014 to refine indicators and the purpose and scope of an index.
References
EPA. 2014. Report on the Environment. Public Review Draft, http://cfpub.epa.gov/roe/ (Last accessed
3/25/15).
NRC. 2012. Disaster Resilience: A National Imperative. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press.
For More Information
Visit: EPANHSRC website (www2.epa.gov/homeland-securitv-research)
Contact: Brendan Doyle (202) 564-4584, dovle.brendan@epa.gov
Keely Maxwell (202) 564-5266, maxwell.keelv@epa.gov
If you have difficulty accessing this PDF document, please contact Kathy Nickel (nickel.kathv@epa.gov) or
Amelia McCall (mccall,amelia@epa.gov) for assistance.
U.S. EPA's Homeland Security Research Program (HSRP) develops products based on scientific
research and technology evaluations. Our products and expertise are widely used in preventing,
preparing for, and recovering from public health and environmental emergencies that arise from
terrorist attacks or natural disasters. Our research and products address biological, radiological, or
chemical contaminants that could affect indoor areas, outdoor areas, or water infrastructure. HSRP
provides these products, technical assistance, and expertise to support EPA's roles and
responsibilities under the National Response Framework, statutory requirements, and Homeland
Security Presidential Directives.
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Appendix G: Project Resources & References
Reports & Planning Documents:
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Policies:
Executive Order 13653: Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change. 2013.
FEMA. 2011. National Disaster Recovery Framework.
FEMA. 2013. National Mitigation Framework.
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FEMA. 2013. National Response Framework.
Presidential Policy Directive / PPD-8: National Preparedness. 2011.
Presidential Policy Directive / PPD-21: Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience. 2013.
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Sidle, R.C., W.H. Benson, et al. 2013. Broader perspective on ecosystem sustainability:
Consequences for decision making. PNAS 110(23): 9201-08.
Tierney, K. and M. Bruneau. 2007. Conceptualizing and measuring resilience: a key to disaster loss
reduction. TR News 250: 14-17.
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Post-Workshop Reports & Planning Resources:
US EPA. 2015a. Assessing EPA 's Resiliency Tools. (Forthcoming)
US EPA 2014. Flood Resilience: A Basic Guide for Water and Wastewater Utilities. U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA 817-B-14-006.
Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. 2015. Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable
Communities After Disasters: Strategies, Opportunities, and Planning for Recovery.
Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press.
National Institute of Standards and Technology. 2015. Community resilience planning guide. Draft.
National Research Council. 2015. Developing a Framework for Measuring Community Resilience:
Summary of a Workshop. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press.
Post-Workshop Resilience and Sustainability Indices and Frameworks:
Berke, P., J. Horney, and G. Smith. 2014. Community Recovery Checklist. Coastal Hazards Center,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The Colorado Resiliency Project. 2015. Colorado Resiliency Framework. 2015.
https://sites.google.eom/a/state.co.us/coloradounited/resiliencv-framework (Last accessed
June 27, 2015)
Livability Project. 2014. The Livability Project Framework.
http://www.livabilityproiect.com/livabilitv-framework (Last accessed May 15, 2015).
Partnership for Sustainable Communities. 2014. Sustainable Community Indicator Catalog.
http://www.sustainablecommunities.gOv//indicators (Last accessed May 15, 2015).
Post-Workshop Journal Articles:
Cutter, S.L., K.D. Ash, and C.T. Emrich. 2014. The geographies of community disaster resilience.
Global Environmental Change 29: 65-77.
Eisenberg, D.A., I. Linkov, et al. 2014. Resilience metrics: Lessons from military doctrines.
Solutions 5(5): 76-87.
Evans, P.C. and P. Fox-Penner. 2014. Resilient and sustainable infrastructure for urban energy
systems. Solutions 5(5): 48-54.
Fiksel, J. 2014. Introduction: Why resilience? Solutions 5(5): 6-7.
Fiksel, J., I. Goodman, and A. Hecht. 2014. Resilience: navigating toward a sustainable future.
Solutions 5(5): 38-47.
Gunderson, L. 2014. Managing resilience for ecosystem restoration in a changing climate. Solutions
5(5): 21-25.
Hecht, A.D. and J. Fiksel. 2014. Solving the problems we face: the United States Environmental
Protection Agency, sustainability, and the challenges of the twenty-first century.
Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy 11(1).
McKay, J. 2014. Chief Resilience Officers: Coming to your city? Emergency Management.
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