Chapter
Nov 14, 2023

The Evolution of Resilience and Sustainability as Key Concepts in Research and Policy Discourse

Publication: ASCE Inspire 2023

ABSTRACT

The terms resilience and sustainability have been interpreted in multiple ways across fields of study, and the meanings of these terms continue to evolve. The use of these terms and the impetus for associated research in engineering and other fields impact government decisions, business decisions, and multinational agreements. To better understand the evolution of sustainability and resilience and interlinkages, a timeline of major natural (i.e., climate and weather-associated) disasters, US-based and international policy agreements, engineering standards, and other key geopolitical events related to the concepts were developed. The timelines are synthesized and cross-referenced by analyzing disaster-related spending and research outcomes over time. This evidence is used to understand trends that relate to sustainability and resilience across research, funding, and policies. This research project seeks to understand the direction of causation between science and policy, the differences in objectives and usage between the terms resilience and sustainability, and the evolution of these concepts.

Get full access to this article

View all available purchase options and get full access to this chapter.

REFERENCES

Agrawala, S. (1998). Context and early origins of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Climatic Change, 39, 605–620.
An Agenda for Development: Report of the Secretary General (A/48/935). (1994). UN General Assembly. https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/188719?ln=en.
((ALL=(resilien*)) AND TS=(ability or system or adapt or recover or changing or hazards or functions or capacity)) – 137,532 – Web of Science Core Collection. (n.d.). Retrieved May 2, 2023, from https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/summary/51b2596b-8ee2-41c0-99d7-e33c1c56764d-86c6da41/relevance/1.
(ALL=(sustainab*)) AND TS=(generations or future or needs or economic or meet or natural or environment or human) – 611,588 – Web of Science Core Collection. (n.d.). Retrieved May 2, 2023, from https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/summary/366ac360-fd5f-4b6e-a816-c685f5a5ae50-86c680ab/relevance/1.
Boston, P. J. (2008). Gaia Hypothesis. In Encyclopedia of Ecology (pp. 1727–1731). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-008045405-4.00735-7.
Compliance with Executive Order 13563 for Comments. (2017). US Army Corps of Engineers. https://www.nan.usace.army.mil/Portals/37/docs/regulatory/special_publicnotices/eo13563.pdf.
Clinton, B. (1994). Executive Order 12898: Federal Actions To Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations. Federal Register. https://www.archives.gov/files/federal-register/executive-orders/pdf/12898.pdf.
Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 | FEMA.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved May 5, 2023, from https://www.fema.gov/disaster/disaster-recovery-reform-act-2018.
The Disaster Relief Fund (No. R45484). (2022). Congressional Research Service. https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R45484.
Environmental Operating Principles. (2002). US Army Corps of Engineers Headquarters. https://www.usace.army.mil/Missions/Environmental/Environmental-Operating-Principles/.
Evolution of the Clean Air Act. (2022, November 22). US Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/evolution-clean-air-act#caa70.
The Evolution of Resilience and Sustainability as Key Concepts in Research and Policy Discourse [Supplemental Materials] (2023). Risk-Informed Solutions in Engineering Laboratory, http://www.riselab.umd.edu/supplementalmaterials-202306-01/.
Executive Order 13834, Efficient Federal Operations. (2018). Executive Office of the President. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/05/22/2018-11101/efficient-federal-operations.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency Publication 1. (2010). US Department of Homeland Security.
Global Change Research Act. (1990). US Global Change Research Program. https://www.globalchange.gov/about/legal-mandate.
The Federal Policy Environment Influencing Disaster Recovery. (2015). National Academies Press. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK316538/.
The IPCC: Who Are They and Why Do Their Climate Reports Matter? (2008, July 16). https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/ipcc-who-are-they.
Gómez-Baggethun, E., and J. Manuel Naredo. (2015). In search of lost time: The rise and fall of limits to growth in international sustainability policy. Sustainability Science, 10. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11625-015-0308-6.
Introduction to Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Concepts. (2021). In Emergency and Risk Management Case Studies Textbook. Emergency Management Institute. https://training.fema.gov/hiedu/aemrc/booksdownload/emoutline/.
Ivanova, M. (2013). The Contested Legacy of Rio + 20. Global Environmental Politics, 13(4). https://muse-jhu-edu.proxy-um.researchport.umd.edu/pub/6/article/524772.
Key Incidents and Milestones, Emergency Response Timeline. (2022, November). EPA. https://www.epa.gov/emergency-response/key-incidents-and-milestones.
Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. (1997, December). https://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol.
Mandelker, D. R. (2010). The National Environmental Policy Act: A Review of Its Experience and Problems. Washington University Journal of Law and Policy, 32(1), 293–312.
McAllister, T. P. (2013). Developing Guidelines and Standards for Disaster Resilience of the Built Environment: A Research Needs Assessment (NIST TN 1795). NIST. https://www.nist.gov/publications/developing-guidelines-and-standards-disaster-resilience-built-environment-research.
Moore, G. S. (2002). Living With the Earth: Concepts in Environmental Health Science (2nd ed.). Lewis Publishers.
Milestones in EPA and Environmental History. (2022, June 28). United States Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/history/milestones-epa-and-environmental-history.
Milestones in the History of Disaster Risk Reduction. (2016). United Nations Office of Disaster Risk Reduction. https://www.undrr.org/about-undrr/history#idndr.
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters. (2023). https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/. https://doi.org/10.25921/stkw-7w73.
NEA (Nuclear Energy Agency). (2002). Chernobyl: Assessment of Radiological and Health Impacts. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. https://www.oecd-nea.org/jcms/pl_13598.
The origins of the IPCC: How the world woke up to climate change. (2018). International Science Council. https://council.science/current/blog/the-origins-of-the-ipcc-how-the-world-woke-up-to-climate-change/.
Orliange, P., and Zaratiegui, T. (2022). International development cooperation as a global governance policy. Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional, 65(2). https://umaryland.on.worldcat.org/search/detail/9654542754?subformat=Artchap%.
Our Common Future: Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development. (1987). World Commission on Environment and Development. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/5987our-Common-future.pdf.
Plan of Action on the Ozone Layer. (1995). World Meteorological Association. https://gml.noaa.gov/ozwv/dobson/papers/wmobro/action.html.
Policy Statement 187—Policy on Research in Civil Engineering. (1976). https://www.asce.org/advocacy/policy-statements/ps187---policy-on-research-in-civil-engineering.
Policy statement 518—Unified definitions for critical infrastructure resilience. (2006). American Society of Civil Engineers. https://www.asce.org/advocacy/policy-statements/ps518---unified-definitions-for-critical-infrastructure-resilience.
President’s Council on Sustainable Development. (1993). National Archives. https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies/president-s-council-on-sustainable-development.
Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. (1992). [Annex I]. https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/NL7/300/05/IMG/NL730005.pdf?OpenElement.
Report of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. (1972, June 16). United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm.
Report of the World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction. (1994, May 23). The World Conference on Natural Disaster Reduction, Yokohama, Japan. https://www.preventionweb.net/files/10996_N9437604.pdf.
Resilience Initiative Roadmap. (2016, May 13). US Army Corps of Engineers Headquarters. https://www.usace.army.mil/Missions/Sustainability/Building-Resilience/.
Nixon, R. (1970). Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1970. US Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/archive/epa/aboutepa/reorganization-plan-no-3-1970.html.
Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, Public Law 93-288, as amended, 42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.(1988). https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/fema_stafford_act_2021_vol1.pdf.
Smith, A. B. (2020). U.S. Billion-dollar Weather and Climate Disasters, 1980—Present [Data set]. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. https://doi.org/10.25921/STKW-7W73.
Stewart, R. (1979). The First GARP Global Experiment: A View From the Inside. South African Journal of Science, 75. https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/AJA00382353_9870.
What is the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction? (n.d.). Retrieved May 5, 2023, from https://www.undrr.org/implementing-sendai-framework/what-sendai-framework.
World Conference on the Changing Atmosphere: Implications for Global Security. (1988, June 27). Toronto Conference, Toronto. https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/106359?ln=en.
World Summit on Sustainable Development, 26 August-4 September 2002, Johannesburg. (n.d.). Un.Org. https://www.un.org/en/conferences/environment/johannesburg2002.

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

Go to ASCE Inspire 2023
ASCE Inspire 2023
Pages: 487 - 496

History

Published online: Nov 14, 2023

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

ASCE Technical Topics:

Authors

Affiliations

1Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD. Email: [email protected]
Jessica Blake [email protected]
2Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD. Email: [email protected]
Jennifer Helgeson, Ph.D. [email protected]
3National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD. Email: [email protected]
Michelle Bensi, Ph.D. [email protected]
4Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD. Email: [email protected]

Metrics & Citations

Metrics

Citations

Download citation

If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.

View Options

Get Access

Access content

Please select your options to get access

Log in/Register Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members: Please log in to see member pricing

Purchase

Save for later Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.

Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
ASCE Library Card (5 downloads)
$105.00
Add to cart
ASCE Library Card (20 downloads)
$280.00
Add to cart
Buy Single Paper
$35.00
Add to cart
Buy E-book
$230.00
Add to cart

Get Access

Access content

Please select your options to get access

Log in/Register Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members: Please log in to see member pricing

Purchase

Save for later Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.

Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
ASCE Library Card (5 downloads)
$105.00
Add to cart
ASCE Library Card (20 downloads)
$280.00
Add to cart
Buy Single Paper
$35.00
Add to cart
Buy E-book
$230.00
Add to cart

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

Share

Share

Copy the content Link

Share with email

Email a colleague

Share