Measurement of locality specific resilience

Resilience has been defined at the local, state, and national levels, and subsequent attempts to refine the definition have added clarity. Quantitative measurements, however, are crucial to a shared understanding of resilience. This paper reviews the evolution of resiliency indicators and metrics and suggests extensions to current indicators to measure functional resilience at a jurisdictional or community level. Using a management systems approach, an input/output model may be developed to demonstrate abilities, actions, and activities needed to support a desired outcome. Applying systematic gap analysis and an improvement cycle with defined metrics, the paper proposes a model to evaluate a community's operational capability to respond to stressors. As each locality is different-with unique risks, strengths, and weaknesses-the model incorporates these characteristics and calculates a relative measure of maturity for that community. Any community can use the resulting model output to plan and improve its resiliency capabilities.