The Resilience Dividend: Accounting for the Co-benefits of Resilience Planning

WRF (World Resource Forum)

Geneva, Switzerland, 25 October 2017

October 19, 2017

Jennifer Helgeson, Ph.D.

Applied Economics Office, Engineering Lab, NIST

Economic Decision Guide (EDG) • Provides a standard methodology for

evaluating investment decisions aimed at improving a community’s resilience

• Designed for use with NIST’s CRPG– but can be used alone

– Mechanism to evaluate efficiency of resilience actions and to prioritize them

• Frames the socio-economic decision process

– Identifies and compares resilience-related benefits & costs

• Across competing alternatives

• Versus the status quo (do-nothing)

Economic Decision Guide Software (EDGeS) Tool • Uncertainty: hazard probability/magnitude, benefits, costs, co-benefits, co-costs

– options: triangular, rectangular, Gaussian, discrete (symmetric & asymmetric)

• To whom does the cost/benefit accrue? – assignment of bearers of the costs/benefits – property rights (externalities)

• Graphical presentations • Co-benefits (co-costs), i.e., the resilience

dividend – Even if a disaster does NOT occur, the

planning enables other day-to-day improvements. (Rodin, 2014; Zolli & Healy, 2013) --- we are moving towards quantitative analysis.

– CGE work on co-benefits (Fung & Helgeson, 2017; Helgeson et. Al., 2017), Example: Cedar Rapids, Iowa

• Inherent resilience • Adaptive resilience

Taken from istockphoto.com

Next steps • Business Residential survey instrument to deploy after disaster events. • Continued work and feedback from communities on the EDG and EDGeS Tool. • Modeling and quantifying the resilience dividend. • Understand co-benefits and trade-offs in planning for sustainability and/or

resilience planning.

Community Needs Drive Functional Requirements for the Built Environment

Contact info.

Website: http://www.nist.gov/el/resilience/

Community Resilience Planning Guide: http://www.nist.gov/el/resilience/guide.cfm Economic Decision Guide: https://www.nist.gov/topics/community-resilience/community-resilience-economic-decision-guide

Want to 1. Test the EDGeS Tool? 2. See the EDGeS User Guide? or 3. Discuss in greater detail, email me:

Jennifer Helgeson, PhD: jennifer.helgeson@nist.gov Thank you! Questions? Discussion