Our Approach to Infrastructure Resilience

Our approach to infrastructure resiliency is designed to meet the unique interdisciplinary needs of the critical infrastructure community. As communities design, build, update, or retrofit their critical infrastructure, it is important to consider the entire lifecycle of an investment, including demographic changes, interdependencies with other infrastructure systems, immediate and long-term risks, potential disruptions, and the consequences of those disruptions on economies, public health, and well-being. Because many of these critical infrastructure systems that rely on one another are owned and operated by a network of public and private organizations, the need to work together when considering the consequences of potential disruptions and failures are increasingly important in today’s interconnected world. For example, a failure in energy transmission can have cascading effects on transportation safety, water supplies, hospitals, businesses, and community services.

Collaboration and coordination with interdependent stakeholders throughout all phases of critical infrastructure planning, design, construction, and maintenance is a key component of the Resilience Planning Program approach.

How We Support Resilient Infrastructure Design 

Before resilient infrastructure can be constructed, it must first be designed to be flexible, multifunctional, and able to recover rapidly from disruption. To combine policy with practice, the program is building a resilient design curriculum and connects current resilient design research and community resilience initiatives. The Resilience Planning program also participates in multiple national resilience initiatives, such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology Community Resilience Center for Excellence, Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities, and others.

The program convenes experts from varying disciplines and professions to review facility designs and consider how to address multiple hazards and future risks across the project lifecycle, as well as dependencies on other facilities and systems, such as communications, water, and transportation.

In conjunction with academic institutions and professional associations, the program incorporates principles of resilient infrastructure design into existing educational and professional programs, such as urban and regional planning, architecture, landscape architecture, public administration, and engineering.

How We Support Recovery After Incidents 

When states and localities face natural or man-made disasters, the immediate emphasis on restoration of basic services and meeting urgent needs can often limit opportunities to rebuild in a way that will reduce future vulnerabilities and costs. The Resilience Planning Program’s recovery function coordinates long-term reconstruction and restoration of infrastructure to be resilient to future threats and hazards.

States and communities facing disasters can request infrastructure assessment expertise under the National Disaster Recovery Framework. Under this framework, we work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, FEMA, and Infrastructure Security Division regional offices to provide recovery support personnel during disasters and recovery operations to assess, secure, and restore the infrastructure and lifelines necessary for community health.

During recovery and mitigation, we provide training, exercises and technical assistance to state and local officials to support investments in infrastructure that is more resilient to future threats.

How We Facilitate Collaboration 

Because most critical infrastructure systems cross jurisdictions and are managed by multiple public and private owners and regulators, the program facilitates meetings to aid in collaborative planning and decision-making that might otherwise be limited by jurisdictional, political, and ownership boundaries.

The program works with regional government councils and state, local, and tribal governments to convene groups of water and wastewater providers, cities and counties, energy companies, dam operators, and others to collaborate on planning and investment strategies across geographic and jurisdictional boundaries.

The program works with regional and local government officials and infrastructure owners and operators to implement Regional Resiliency Assessment Program (RRAP) findings. State and regional agencies and associations partner with the Resilience Planning Program to deliver training and technical assistance that considers infrastructure resilience as part of hazard mitigation and other plans.

Through membership on multiple federal coordinating councils, the program shares knowledge and capabilities across DHS, the federal government, universities, professional associations, and others to develop and implement infrastructure resilience measures. Some of these partnerships include: