New ASTM standard links building performance, community resilience

Source: ASTM International, West Conshohocken, Pa.; CP staff

The forthcoming ASTM E3130, Developing Cost-Effective Community Resilience Strategies will inform authorities on ways to respond, withstand, and recover from a range of potential catastrophes, such as natural hazards, utility outages, and human-caused disruptions. The standard provides an economic framework to evaluate investment strategies, along with a seven-step approach to help communities formulate resilience plans.

“Investments in community-resilience projects are difficult due to unknowns surrounding the frequency and magnitude of natural, technological, and human-caused disruptions,” says National Institute for Standards and Technology’s David Butry, E06 member. “Accounting for low-probability, high-consequence events challenges traditional economic evaluation methods, but this standard aims to fill that need. [It] can be used to integrate community resilience plans with economic development, zoning, hazard mitigation, and other community planning activities that affect buildings, public works, and infrastructure systems.”

Developed by ASTM Committee E06 on Performance of Buildings, ASTM E3130 is aligned with the U.S. National Preparedness System and complements NIST’s Community Resilience Planning Guide. It will be available from ASTM International customer relations, 877/909-ASTM; www.astm.org.