Community Resilience of Lifeline Systems: Societal Needs and Performance Assessment (Atc-126 Project)

Abstract eng:
The concept of community resilience is a complex, multi-dimensional problem that relies on social science, engineering, earth sciences, economics, and other disciplines to improve the way communities prepare for, resist, respond to, and recover from disruptive events. Community resilience can break the cycle of destruction and recovery and reduce the impacts of earthquakes and other hazards. This requires community planning for recovery of function and setting of recovery goals prior to the occurrence of hazard events to minimize social and economic disruptions. Investigations of lifeline system performance, interdependencies, and corresponding impacts on communities following earthquakes and other disasters around the world have highlighted the need for a new approach to improve the earthquake resilience of lifelines. In 2013, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) funded a project, led by the Applied Technology Council (ATC), that resulted in the NIST GCR 14-917-33 Report, Earthquake Resilient Lifelines: NEHRP Research, Development, and Implementation Roadmap. This report identified the need for assessing societal expectations of acceptable lifeline performance levels and recovery times at the community level as a high-priority research and development topic. NIST funded a follow-on project in 2014 led by ATC to assess current societal expectations of acceptable lifeline performance levels and recovery timeframes, distinguishing those that are hazard independent and those that are specific to earthquakes (including tsunami), as well as other natural hazard events (ATC-126 Project). The team developed the NIST GCR 16-917-39 Report, Critical Assessment of Lifeline System Performance: Understanding Societal Needs in Disaster Recovery, which focuses on societal needs and interdependencies of six key lifelines: electric power, gas and liquid fuel, water, wastewater, telecommunications, and transportation networks. The NIST GCR 16-917-39 Report identifies important gaps between expected lifeline system performance and the performance required to support adequately societal needs during and after a hazard event. Gaps were identified through an evaluation of performance and societal impacts during past events, as well as the assessment of key guidelines, standards and performance criteria that govern and shape the design, construction, operation and management of lifeline systems. The report identifies and discusses the social institutions and societal needs that should drive lifeline system performance levels and timeframes for recovery of function. Critical interdependencies, recommendations and needs particular to policy, modeling, research, and future trends for social needs and lifeline systems are included in the report. This report supports larger efforts, such as the Community Resilience Program and National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) at NIST, intended to help communities and lifeline owners and operators achieve a more integrated and consistent approach to resilience. The findings from this report, summarized in this paper, are intended to inform resilience efforts in the United States and other countries.

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