Community Resilience, Adaptation, and Sustainability Planning User Elicitation

Community Resilience, Adaptation, and Sustainability Planning: Experiences and Expectations
of Local Staff and Officials
OMB Control No. 0693-0078
Expiration Date: 07/31/2022
Thank you very much for participating. This survey was developed by the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) Community Resilience Program in an effort to better understand the
experiences and expectations of community staff and officials regarding resilience, adaptation, and
sustainability planning. It will take approximately 20 minutes to complete.
The information you provide will help NIST understand the needs of communities like yours, and inform the
shape and direction of support from federal agencies and other groups.
We are interested in hearing from people who have had professional experience with community resilience,
adaptation, or sustainability planning in the past 10 years. Does this apply to you?
Yes
No

Your responses will be confidential and results will only be reported in aggregate. By selecting "Yes" below,
you consent to your responses being used as part of this effort.
Yes, I consent to my responses being used confidentially in this research.
No, I do not consent to my responses being used, even confidentially, in this research.
(Note: Selecting this option will cause you to exit the survey.)

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Community Resilience, Adaptation, and Sustainability Planning: Experiences and Expectations
of Local Staff and Officials
Definitions
Thank you. As you may be aware, definitions for resilience, adaptation, and sustainability can vary, and there
may even be some overlap. For this survey, we are interested in the ways these concepts are applied in the
context of community planning. The following definitions, derived from NIST and the American Planning
Association (APA), are used:
● Community resilience planning includes the processes and actions undertaken to prepare for hazards
and changing conditions, and to resist and rapidly recover from disruptions; it may include activities related to
disaster preparedness, prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery. For resilience ["R"], think:
prepare, resist, recover.
● Community adaptation planning includes the processes and actions involved in modifying the natural or
built environment, or behavior, for the purpose of safeguarding human and environmental health, making the
community better suited to changing conditions, reducing risks, and preparing for projected impacts. For
adaptation ["A"], think: modify for future conditions.
● Community sustainability planning includes the processes and actions through which communities meet
the needs of current and future generations without compromising the systems upon which they depend by
balancing social, economic, and environmental resources, and linking local actions to regional and global
concerns. For sustainability ["S"], think: balance resources for the future.
(Note: The hints in blue can be recalled later in the survey by hovering over the underlined phrase in the
question text.)

In general, how well do these definitions align with your understanding of the concepts of resilience,
adaptation, and sustainability, as related to community planning?
Definitions
do not align
at all

Š

Definitions
somewhat
align

Definitions
slightly align

Š

Š

Š

Š

Š

Š

Definitions
align
perfectly

Š

Š

Š

What would you change in the above definitions to align them more closely with your preferred definitions of
community resilience, adaptation, and sustainability planning?

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Community Resilience, Adaptation, and Sustainability Planning: Experiences and Expectations
of Local Staff and Officials
Background
What is the name of the community (e.g. city, county) and the organization or agency where you are currently
employed?
Community
Organization or agency

Which of the following categories most accurately describes your current position?
Urban planning
City management/administration
Emergency management
Economic development
Parks and recreation
Community resilience office
Community sustainability office
Elected official
Public works
Other (please specify)

About how much of your time at work is spent on community resilience, adaptation, and/or sustainability
planning?
Almost all
More than half
About half
Less than half
Almost none

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How many years have you worked in a capacity related to community resilience, adaptation, or sustainability
planning?
10 years or more
More than 5 but less than 10 years
Between 1 and 5 years
Less than 1 year

Does your community currently employ a Chief Resilience Officer, a Sustainability Coordinator, or equivalent—
someone whose primary job is to coordinate across agencies or government units and generally promote
issues of resilience, adaptation and/or sustainability? (This could include yourself.)
Resilience Officer/Coordinator/Director/Manager

Certified Climate Change Professional (CC-P)

Adaptation Officer/Coordinator/Director/Manager

Not sure

Sustainability Officer/Coordinator/Director/Manager

None of these

Other (please specify)

Does your community currently have any plans (or sections/chapters of plans) devoted to community
resilience, adaptation, and/or sustainability?
Yes (completed and
adopted)

In progress or planned

No

Not sure

Community resilience
Community adaptation
Community sustainability

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Community Resilience, Adaptation, and Sustainability Planning: Experiences and Expectations
of Local Staff and Officials
Prioritization and effectiveness
How would you rate your community’s prioritization of resilience, adaptation, and sustainability planning?
Not a priority at
all

Low priority

Medium priority

High priority

Very high priority

Not sure

Community resilience
planning
Community adaptation
planning
Community
sustainability planning

How, if at all, has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your community’s prioritization of resilience, adaptation,
and sustainability planning?
Generally
Generally positive
negative effect
Neutral (some
effect (higher priority
(lower priority now, negative and some now, compared to
compared to before)
positive effects)
before)

No effect

Not sure

Community resilience
planning
Community adaptation
planning
Community
sustainability planning

Would you care to elaborate on the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on your community’s
prioritization of resilience, adaptation, and/or sustainability planning?

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In general, how effective do you believe your community has been in the pursuit of resilience, adaptation, and
sustainability planning?

Not at all
effective

Minimally
effective

Moderately
effective

Very effective

Extremely
effective

N/A (my
community
does not
pursue this
type of
planning)

Not sure

Community resilience
planning
Community adaptation
planning
Community
sustainability planning

If you care to elaborate, in what ways do you feel your community has been effective or not effective in
pursuing resilience, adaptation, and/or sustainability planning?

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Community Resilience, Adaptation, and Sustainability Planning: Experiences and Expectations
of Local Staff and Officials
Barriers
Which of the following have been barriers to your community's pursuit of resilience, adaptation, or
sustainability planning? Check the boxes in each row to indicate that a barrier impeded your community
resilience, adaptation, and/or sustainability planning efforts.
Resilience planning

Adaptation
planning

Sustainability
planning

Not a barrier to any
of these

Not sure

Funding (e.g. city
budget, grants)
Politics (e.g. lack of
official support,
perceived controversy)
Process issues (e.g.
coordination, planning)
Technical issues (e.g.
data or resources,
uncertainty)
Timing (e.g. planning or
election cycles, state or
national trends)
Public and stakeholders
(e.g. aversion, other
priorities)
Staffing (e.g. size,
expertise)

Are there any other barriers that have prevented your community from pursuing resilience, adaptation, and/or
sustainability planning? (Or is there anything you'd like to clarify about your answers above?)

Would you care to elaborate on how these barriers prevented resilience, adaptation, and/or sustainability
planning in your community?

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Community Resilience, Adaptation, and Sustainability Planning: Experiences and Expectations
of Local Staff and Officials
External information and support
Now, thinking about external information and support for community resilience, adaptation, and/or
sustainability planning, please indicate whether your community sought information/support for each of the
following at some point in the past 10 years, and whether you received that support.
Sought and received
external
information/support

Sought but did not
receive external
information/support

Did not seek external
information/support

Not sure

Data about my
community (e.g.
economic, infrastructure,
social)
Data about relevant
hazards, including
projections of future
conditions
Analytical models for
hazard impact analysis
Decision support tools to
optimize solutions or
strategies
Planning process
guidance (e.g. getting
started, facilitation)
Funding resources for
planning
Funding resources for
implementation
Public education and
outreach

Are there any other types of external information/support for community resilience, adaptation, and/or
sustainability planning that your community sought in the past 10 years? Did you receive this support?

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For each of the following, what was the source of the external information/support?

Federal
State
Educational Nonprofit
For-profit
government government institution organization organization

Other

Did not
receive
support for
this

Not sure

Data about my
community (e.g.
economic, infrastructure,
social)
Data about relevant
hazards, including
projections of future
conditions
Analytical models for
hazard impact analysis
Decision support tools to
optimize solutions or
strategies
Planning process
guidance (e.g. getting
started, facilitation)
Funding resources for
planning
Funding resources for
implementation
Public education and
outreach
Other types of external
information or support
(as specified above)

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Community Resilience, Adaptation, and Sustainability Planning: Experiences and Expectations
of Local Staff and Officials
External information and support -- future
Now, please indicate the importance of each of the following external information/support types to your
community's future resilience, adaptation, and/or sustainability planning .
Not at all
important

Slightly
important

Moderately
important

Very important

Extremely
important

Not sure

Data about my
community (e.g.
economic, infrastructure,
social)
Data about relevant
hazards, including
projections of future
conditions
Analytical models for
hazard impact analysis
Decision support tools to
optimize solutions or
strategies
Planning process
guidance (e.g. getting
started, facilitation)
Funding resources for
planning
Funding resources for
implementation
Public education and
outreach

Are there any other types of information/support for community resilience, adaptation, or sustainability
planning that your community is interested in receiving in the future?

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Based on your experience, what is the most important single action that an external supporting organization
could take to effectively foster community resilience, adaptation, and/or sustainability planning?

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Community Resilience, Adaptation, and Sustainability Planning: Experiences and Expectations
of Local Staff and Officials
Survey conclusion
Thank you for your valuable contributions. Would you be interested in participating in a follow-up survey
discussing these or related topics in greater detail?
Yes
No

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Community Resilience, Adaptation, and Sustainability Planning: Experiences and Expectations
of Local Staff and Officials
Survey conclusion
We're very pleased to hear of your interest. Please provide your preferred contact email address in the space
below.

Finally, is there anything else you would like to share with NIST at this time regarding your experiences with
community resilience, adaptation, and/or sustainability planning?

Public Burden Statement
A Federal agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, nor shall a person
be subject to a penalty for failure to comply with an information collection subject to the requirements of the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 unless the information collection has a currently valid OMB Control Number.
The approved OMB Control Number for this information collection is 0693-0078. Without this approval, we
could not conduct this survey. Public reporting for this information collection is estimated to be approximately
20 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources,
gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the information collection. All
responses to this information collection are voluntary. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any
other aspect of this information collection, including suggestions for reducing this burden to the National
Institute of Standards and Technology, Attn: Chris Clavin, NIST, 100 Bureau Drive, MS 8662, Gaithersburg,
MD 20899-8662; via telephone: 240-205-5860; or via email: [email protected].

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Community Resilience, Adaptation, and Sustainability Planning: Experiences and Expectations
of Local Staff and Officials
Survey exit
Ok, thank you. Is there another employee(s) in your community who works on resilience, adaptation, and/or
sustainability planning that you believe would be a more appropriate respondent for this survey? If so, please
provide their name(s) and contact information.
(If you believe you arrived at this page in error, you can select the "Prev" button, below, to return to the
previous page and continue the survey.)

Public Burden Statement [early survey exit]
A Federal agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, nor shall a person
be subject to a penalty for failure to comply with an information collection subject to the requirements of the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 unless the information collection has a currently valid OMB Control Number.
The approved OMB Control Number for this information collection is 0693-0078. Without this approval, we
could not conduct this survey. Public reporting for this information collection is estimated to be approximately
20 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources,
gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the information collection. All
responses to this information collection are voluntary. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any
other aspect of this information collection, including suggestions for reducing this burden to the National
Institute of Standards and Technology, Attn: Chris Clavin, NIST, 100 Bureau Drive, MS 8662, Gaithersburg,
MD 20899-8662; via telephone: 240-205-5860; or via email: [email protected].

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