Dealing with disasters: developing an integrated regional resilience strategy

Public-private partnerships can serve as an effective mechanism to collectively strengthen community disaster preparedness and critical infrastructure resilience. This process involves multiple intersecting elements, including Federal, State, regional, local, and private-sector stakeholders, each with unique operating conditions and risks within its own environment. The 2010 Dams Sector Exercise Series (DSES-10) represents an example of the type of public-private effort that can lead to enhanced resilience on a regional scale. This paper discusses the findings and outcomes resulting from the DSES-10 effort, including its capstone Regional Resilience Strategy. The strategy was designed to assist public and private stakeholders in the identification of integrated post-disaster recovery solutions with respect to a catastrophic flood event, prioritization of actions to improve regional disaster resilience, and development of sustainable public-private partnerships to enhance planning and multi-jurisdictional coordination in the context of a wide range of potential threats and hazards.