The U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC)'s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) government member, will issue a full draft of its Community Disaster Resilience Framework for public comment during a April 27 workshop to be held at Texas Southern University in Houston. The framework will undergo a 60-day public review, to be announced in the Federal Register on April 27. ANSI encourages all stakeholders with an interest in improving the resilience of U.S. communities to attend the event and review the draft document.
The resilience planning guide is a tool intended to help communities develop and implement procedures that will help reduce and prevent damage caused by natural and man-made hazards—including lengthy and costly aftermath recoveries. Human-inflicted and natural disasters cause an estimated $57B in average annual costs, according to NIST.
The framework was developed by NIST researchers and other unaffiliated experts in fields ranging from earthquake engineering, sociology, buildings, and public utilities. At the event, NIST will also discuss next steps and the development of a Disaster Resilience Standards Panel (DRSP), to be developed when the basic structure and content of the Disaster Resilience Framework has been established with input from stakeholders and related workshops.
Workshop participants will receive an overview of the planning guide framework, and learn how to apply it to their communities. A panel of emergency planner experts and other local and regional representatives are scheduled to discuss the potential application of the tool in communities. Those with expertise in standards and code development, community planning, disaster recovery, emergency management, business continuity, insurance, state and local government, design, construction, and maintenance of infrastructure are encouraged to attend.
The April 27 workshop will run from 8:30 am to 4 pm; pre- registration is required with a fee of $5 for the meeting only or $52 including catered meals. Further details and registration information is available on the NIST website.
To read more about NIST's previous work in resilience standardization, click here.