THE P.E.O.P.L.E.S. resilience framework: A conceptual approach to quantify community resilience

Over the past years, the concept of resilience has gained attention recognizing the fact that not all threats or disasters can be averted. In fact, communities around the world are turning their attention to efforts and ways that can enhance their resilience against extreme events in any dimensions of life. Resilience is becoming increasingly important for modern societies as states come to accept that they cannot prevent every risk from being realized but rather must learn to adapt and manage risks in a way that minimizes impact on human and other systems. This paper presents a holistic framework for defining and measuring disaster resilience for a community at scales ranging from individual structures (e.g. hospitals) and smaller communities (neighborhoods) to entire regions. Seven dimensions of community resilience have been identified and are represented by the acronym PEOPLES: Population and Demographics, Environmental/ Ecosystem, Organized Governmental Services, Physical Infrastructure, Lifestyle and Community Competence, Economic Development, and Social- Cultural Capital. The PEOPLES Resilience Framework provides the foundation to integrate any quantitative and qualitative models that measures systems' resilience against extreme events (or disasters for that matter) in any or a combination of the above-mentioned seven dimensions. Besides a short-term gap finding analysis, this framework enables communities over the long-term to add and utilize geospatial and temporal decision-support tools that help communities in their planning efforts to assess and to enhance resilience.