The Core Competencies of Resilience

Extreme weather events and acts of terrorism have highlighted the need for resilient cities and infrastructure systems. The academic community is beginning to respond by offering specific course work to better prepare engineers for this broad and rapidly evolving topic. One challenge facing academic institutions is formulating the course content. Here at the University of Iowa, I was assigned this task based on my 33 years of engineering practice that included directing the response to Iowa City’s four largest floods of record, a tornado, a derecho, an enormous landfill fire, numerous severe winter storms, as well as many other smaller scale catastrophes. My experience has also been shaped by serving on the Iowa Department of Homeland Security’s First Responders Advisory Committee. This paper will identity the core competencies of resilience that are necessary for civil engineers in today’s world. These competencies not only include better strategies for design, but also operational skills for disaster planning, response, and recovery.