Equitable Resilience Builder (ERB 1.0) User Guide
Citation:
Maxwell, K., B. Kiessling, M. Shacklette, E. Eisenhauer, M. Fry, S. Julius, M. MATSLER, L. Oliver, AND I. Reilly. Equitable Resilience Builder (ERB 1.0) User Guide. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-23/355, 2023.
Impact/Purpose:
Disasters and climate change can cause or worsen environmental and human health problems in ways that often reflect historic societal inequalities. Strengthening resilience to disasters and climate change can reduce associated environmental and human health problems; equity needs to be addressed as part of this, in order to avoid disproportionate impacts of incidents falling on already overburdened populations, and to ensure that the benefits and costs of resilience interventions are shared. While a host of resilience planning resources have been developed, there is still a need for resources that address both resilience and equity EPA has developed the Equitable Resilience Builder (ERB) tool to support this need. ERB is a downloadable application that supports communities in strengthening resilience to disasters and climate change, with a focus on equity. The research that has gone into creating ERB incudes work on resilience indicators, social vulnerability, and human-centered design. Equity and inclusion are embedded into the content of ERB and the process of using it. ERB is designed to be used by state, Tribal, territorial, county, or municipal agencies that work on environment, emergency management, public health, sustainability, land use, and climate risk management. It is intended to assist communities with different types of resilience planning (e.g. climate adaptation, disaster planning, emergency preparedness). It contains a toolkit of activities for local government agencies or non-profit organizations to carry out in conjunction with robust community engagement. Users can select relevant activities to inclusively assess local hazards, equity, and resilience of built, natural, and social environment systems; then uses the results to collaboratively prioritize actions to build community resilience in an equitable way.
Description:
The Equitable Resilience Builder (ERB) is a downloadable application that supports communities in strengthening resilience to disasters and climate change, with a focus on equity. It engages users in a guided process to inclusively assess local hazards, equity, and resilience of built, natural, and social environment systems; then uses the results to collaboratively prioritize actions to build community resilience in an equitable way. ERB is designed to be used by state, Tribal, territorial, county, or municipal agencies that work on environment, emergency management, public health, sustainability, land use, and climate risk management. It is intended to assist communities with different types of resilience planning (e.g. climate adaptation, disaster planning, emergency preparedness). It contains a toolkit of activities for local government agencies or non-profit organizations to carry out in conjunction with robust community engagement. These activities include: community connections diagramming, facilitation guides for workshops, trauma-informed engagement strategies, storytelling, participatory mapping, indicator card sorting, and action evaluation. Users can select the activities that best meet their needs. ERB promotes equitable resilience planning through relationships, recognition, information, and action. It centers equity in three ways. Its guided process and activities make sure that community members have a voice in resilience planning. Its assessment of hazards and equity illuminates who is made most vulnerable to disaster and climate impacts, why, and how, with attention to deeply rooted social and environmental inequalities. Its assessment is grounded in local knowledge, with supplemental data collection options depending on user interest and capacity. Using ERB can result in a stronger network of community organizations and agencies to share?information and resources, data and indicators for measuring change, and a set of actions and next steps for building resilience in an equitable way.
URLs/Downloads:
EQUITABLE RESILIENCE BUILDER - ERB 1.0 USER GUIDE.PDF (PDF, NA pp, 3055.571 KB, about PDF)https://www.epa.gov/emergency-response-research/equitable-resilience-builder