Using the Equitable Resilience Builder (ERB) Tool in resilience planning

Learning from the experiences of planners and environmental managers who want to increase equity in their engagement, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency developed the Equitable Resilience Builder (ERB) – a tool designed to enhance community engagement by incorporating best practices into resilience planning.  The ERB offers guidance on engaging communities, integrating local knowledge into hazard and resilience assessments, and collaboratively prioritizing actions to improve equity and resilience.  This presentation will include a live demo of the ERB, a downloadable application created by an interdisciplinary team at the U.S. EPA using human-centered design techniques. The tool aids local resilience planners in incorporating community voices with resilience and vulnerability data.  It provides techniques for inclusive engagement, trauma-informed approaches, storytelling workshops, and strategies for evaluating hazards, equity, and resilience by combining local knowledge with other data sources.  The ERB uniquely integrates qualitative and quantitative data, enhancing planning processes for resilience and climate change adaptation.  

Impact/Purpose

The Equitable Resilience Builder (ERB) is a newly released tool to support community resilience planning.  ERB is a downloadable application that supports communities in strengthening resilience to disasters and climate change.  It walks a core team of users through a guided process to engage community members in resilience planning to generate solutions that address equity.  State, Tribal, territorial, county, or municipal government agencies in environment, public health, emergency management, public works, or land use might be interested in using ERB.  The core team uses it to plan collaborative workshops to assess hazards, vulnerability, and resilience, and to identify actions to strengthen community resilience in ways that address the needs of those made vulnerable by social and environmental inequalities.  In this presentation, audience members will be introduced to the tool and shown how to use it.

Citation

Nee, R. Using the Equitable Resilience Builder (ERB) Tool in resilience planning. To be presented at American Planning Association National Capitol Area National Chapter Annual Chapter Conference, Washington, DC, October 11, 2024.