Strategies to Improve Disaster Resilience of Existing Buildings
The Built Environment Coalition, with Linnean Solutions and the Resilient Design Institute, recently completed a study of "Best Practice" strategies to improve the disaster resilience of existing buildings (Building Resilience in Boston: "Best Practices" for Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience for Existing Buildings, http://builtenvironmentcoalition.org/Results/Building%20Resilience%20in%20Boston%20July%202013%20lowres.pdf).
The strategies are applicable across all types of buildings and all hazard categories. The first chapter provides the example of Boston as a context for examining resilience and vulnerability, and the second chapter describes key resources for this study (supplemented with an annotated bibliography in the appendix). Over 250 strategies are grouped by general actions, site, building structure, enclosure, systems, operations, and people/building use, with detailed technical references.
Chapter 4 provides a survey of municipal strategies for enhancing resilience, including mandatory building retrofits, mandatory actions for new construction or major renovations, incentives for voluntary actions, financing mechanisms and grants to facilitate voluntary actions, education and outreach, and other actions. The report concludes with next steps - most notably the urgency and opportunity to immediately implement no/low cost strategies to improve resilience, and to incorporate further strategies into capital facility plans and budgets.