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Centering Equity in Community Planning using the EPA’s Equitable Resilience Builder Tool

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  • Overview
Marissa Matsler will present and demo the EPA’s new resilience planning tool, the Equitable Resilience Builder (ERB). The tool was developed by an interdisciplinary team at EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) using Human-Centered Design (HCD) techniques. The tool was developed in response to feedback from local governments that it is difficult to incorporate community voices with resilience and vulnerability data in planning processes. ERB is a downloadable tool for inclusive resilience planning addressing both disasters and climate change. It includes techniques for equity-focused community engagement; guides for workshops with storytelling; and strategies for evaluating hazards, equity, and resilience with local knowledge and other data. ERB is unique in its combination of qualitative and quantitative data and processes. The goal of the tool is to be: 1) Equitable – users can increase attention to equity using tool content and process; 2) Holistic – users visualize how built, natural, and social environments affect equitable resilience; 3) Adaptable – ERB can be used in different types of resilience planning: watershed, hazard mitigation, disaster preparedness, climate adaptation, etc.; 4) Flexible – users select which activities best suit their goals, timeline, and resources; 5) Iterative – reflection and revision are built into ERB; 6) Emotions and trauma – ERB recognizes that resilience planning sparks emotional reactions, especially in places suffering from historic trauma or recent disasters. Through emphasizing engagement, empowering local knowledge, and respecting and incorporating underrepresented perspectives from the community, the ERB helps users build a stronger sense of community trust and develop more equitable resilience plans.

Impact/Purpose

Climate change presents cascading and compounding threats to low-income and underrepresented communities, increasing the need for equitable resilience planning. However, many local governments face challenges incorporating community voices with resilience and vulnerability data in planning processes. Our research team created the Equitable Resilience Builder (ERB) tool to address these challenges. This is a presentation of the ERB tool to federal scientists at the US Forest Service Urban Field Station. The goal of this presentation is to present and demo the ERB tool to professionals for their awareness and feedback. Use of this tool by scientists throughout the US can improve the inclusion of communities in resilience planning with the potential to increase equity in many climate change adaptation actions. 

Citation

Maxwell, K., E. Eisenhauer, B. Kiessling, S. Julius, M. Fry, M. Matsler, M. Shacklette, L. Oliver, S. Henson, AND R. Nee. Centering Equity in Community Planning using the EPA’s Equitable Resilience Builder Tool. Lunch 'n' Learn, NYC, NY, July 24, 2024.
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Last updated on July 25, 2024
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