Disaster response has dominated headlines for years, and technologies to enhance disaster response capabilities are rapidly emerging. Now, a new global dialogue is centering on resilience—how we not only come together to help communities quickly recover, and even thrive, post-disaster, but how we strengthen their defenses against future threats. Every community is different, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to improving disaster resilience, thus it is difficult to measure and assess. However, the academic research community holds a consensus view that the ability to measure improvements based on a maturity model-based approach will help guide communities down a path that will enhance their resilience to multi-jurisdictional disasters.
To address this challenge, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) funded the development of guidance and tools to help communities measure their “Capability Quotient (CQ),” which is the readiness to respond to risk and to respond to disruptions of any kind.
DHS S&T and industry partner SPIN Global began working on this guidance in 2016. In that time, they published an assessment framework, developed ResponderCQ.com, and initiated a ‘global disaster resilience assessment community of practice’ in collaboration with the Rockefeller Foundation and Tulane University’s Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy (DRLA).
