Colorado Resiliency Office - Community Resilience Assessments and Action Guides

Student Researcher: Ryan Maye Handy

Client: Colorado Resiliency Office
 
View Capstone Poster
View Executive Summary

This capstone is an independent community resiliency assessment tool created for the Colorado Resiliency Office, or the CRO. The office, part of the Colorado Division of Labor and Affairs, is a state agency dedicated to promoting resiliency, or “the ability to adapt to changing conditions and rapidly recovery from disruptions due to emergencies.” The assessment tool should function as a community-level survey that can be completed by cities of any size and by officials with no particular expertise in planning.

This assessment tool is part of a larger effort by the CRO to map Colorado’s statewide and regional risks, to include natural hazards and social vulnerabilities. In particular, the CRO hopes that a large-scale analysis of risks would help the office target rural, underserved and less well-resourced communities for its work. Research suggests that local resiliency assessments are crucial assets for communities that lack the planning staff or expertise to run a resiliency planning process. Ideally, a community resiliency assessment provides communities with a roadmap to incorporating resiliency into their existing or future plans. This tool aligns with the CRO’s 2020 framework update, which identified six areas of resiliency: Future-Ready Economy and Workforce; Climate Change and Natural Hazards; Building and Infrastructure; Agriculture and Food Security; Housing Attainability; and Community Capacity. This capstone has three parts: research of existing assessment tools and recommendation of a tool; creation of the assessment tool; pilot program with a local community to get feedback on the tool. 

Colorado Resiliency Office - Community Resilience Assessments and Action Guides

Student Researcher: Ryan Maye Handy

Client: Colorado Resiliency Office
 
View Capstone Poster
View Executive Summary

This capstone is an independent community resiliency assessment tool created for the Colorado Resiliency Office, or the CRO. The office, part of the Colorado Division of Labor and Affairs, is a state agency dedicated to promoting resiliency, or “the ability to adapt to changing conditions and rapidly recovery from disruptions due to emergencies.” The assessment tool should function as a community-level survey that can be completed by cities of any size and by officials with no particular expertise in planning.

This assessment tool is part of a larger effort by the CRO to map Colorado’s statewide and regional risks, to include natural hazards and social vulnerabilities. In particular, the CRO hopes that a large-scale analysis of risks would help the office target rural, underserved and less well-resourced communities for its work. Research suggests that local resiliency assessments are crucial assets for communities that lack the planning staff or expertise to run a resiliency planning process. Ideally, a community resiliency assessment provides communities with a roadmap to incorporating resiliency into their existing or future plans. This tool aligns with the CRO’s 2020 framework update, which identified six areas of resiliency: Future-Ready Economy and Workforce; Climate Change and Natural Hazards; Building and Infrastructure; Agriculture and Food Security; Housing Attainability; and Community Capacity. This capstone has three parts: research of existing assessment tools and recommendation of a tool; creation of the assessment tool; pilot program with a local community to get feedback on the tool.