The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Community Resilience Planning Guide for Buildings and Infrastructure Systems provides a practical and flexible approach to help communities improve their resilience.
- Community Resilience Planning Guide for Buildings and Infrastructure Systems – Volume I
- Community Resilience Planning Guide for Buildings and Infrastructure Systems – Volume II
Communities can use the guide to help integrate resilience plans into their economic development, zoning, mitigation, and other local planning activities that impact buildings, public utilities and other infrastructure systems.
The Guide uses a six-step process to helps communities to think through and plan for their social and economic needs, their particular hazard risks, and recovery of the build environment by:
- Setting performance goals for vital social functions -healthcare, education and public safety – and supporting buildings and infrastructure systems – transportation, energy, communications, and water and wastewater.
- Recognizing that the community’s social and economic needs and functions should drive goal-setting for how the built environment performs.
- Providing a comprehensive method to align community priorities and resources with resilience goals.
A fictional community, Riverbend, illustrates the six-step process and how disaster resilience can be integrated into community planning.
The first version of the Guide was released on October 29, 2015, and may be updated periodically as new best practices and research results become available and as communities gain experience using the guide and recommend improvements.