Overview

Stated Objective: Challenges to Community Resilience

Owner: FEMA

URL: https://fema.gov/rapt

Index Release Date: May 2023

Last Update: July 2024

Description

The FEMA Community Resilience Challenges Index (CRCI) is a composite index of 22 community resilience indicators commonly used across 14 peer-reviewed community resilience methodologies (indicators selected are used in 5 or more methodologies). This index provides a relative composite value by county and by census tract, measured as an average of counts of standard deviations from the national mean for each indicator and expressed as a percentile. FEMA CRCI and each individual indicator are included as a GIS data layer in the Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool (RAPT).

Analysis

FEMA and Argonne National Laboratory document the Community Resilience Challenges Index (CRCI) in a report available online. The analysis begins with a literature review of published peer-reviewed research; the current analysis is from research published between 2003 and 2021.  The research team then selects the methodologies that are quantitative, have public methodology and public data, are at least at the county level, with generalized hazard risk, and examine pre-disaster conditions. Next, the research identified and selected the indicators used in at least 5 of the 14 methodologies. These selected commonly used indicators produce an index (FEMA CRCI). The index benefits from multiple research perspectives rather than choosing one methodology among many. The research team identified 22 commonly used indicators. Finally, the research team then bins the data for each indicator and creates a GIS layer to be included in RAPT and produces the FEMA CRCI for counties and census tracts.  

What does this index provide?

The FEMA Community Resilience Challenges Index (CRCI) provides a relative assessment of a community's potential challenges to resilience and gives insights into population and community characteristics from which to build emergency operations plans and targeted outreach strategies. In addition to the FEMA CRCI value, RAPT includes the top three drivers for the FEMA CRCI value for counties (available in the pop-up window).  RAPT also provides data ranges and data points for all 22 indicators used to produce the FEMA CRI. This data, combined with the infrastructure and hazard data layers in RAPT, gives emergency managers the ability to visualize and analyze critical community information for all phases of emergency management.

For what level of government would this index be most useful?

Due to its level of granularity (census tract), this data should be useful at all levels of government:

• Federal
• Tribal (usability is dependent on the size of the tribal geography)
• State
• Regional (intrastate region)
• County
• Local/Municipal*

*Note that in rural communities census tracts tend to be quite large and may encompass multiple communities. In some regions, multiple municipalities may be included within the census tract, which will not yield meaningful results.

Context

Why was the index developed?

In 2018, FEMA’s National Integration Center (NIC) tasked Argonne National Laboratory with analyzing current community resilience research to provide a data-driven basis to prioritize locations for technical assistance investment and to inform community resilience–related content. Given numerous additional resilience and vulnerability indices and reports that have been developed or released since 2018, the team conducted another literature review and analysis to include peer-reviewed materials from 2003-2021, to create an updated version of the index.

Who is the data steward's intended audience?

Local, State, Regional, or Federal Level government, Emergency Response Planning Personnel, Public Health Officials, and community members engaged in community preparedness, response and recovery actions.

How does the data steward envision that data be used?

The analysis of these 22 community resilience indicators, used in multiple peer-reviewed research methodologies, has relevance for many FEMA program areas, as well as for state, local, territorial, and tribal emergency managers. In addition, these indicators support initiatives across all phases of emergency management, including mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. By reviewing county and census tract data for these 22 indicators, emergency managers can gain insights for adapting emergency operations plans to community characteristics, developing targeted outreach strategies, and understanding the resilience challenges community members face.

What are the known limitations of this index?

1. Utilizes uniform formulas and variables across the coverage area; it does not consider community-specific variables or actions. 
2. The interpretation is limited to the variable included in the analysis.
3. Does not include the prevalence or existence of hazards in the vulnerability equation, only social factors. Therefore, this index should be used in conjunction with hazard information.
4. Provides a single snapshot of a community. Multiple events and duration of events may further impact a community’s resilience at a given time.
5. The resulting index is only as relevant as the underlying datasets and the date at which the index was compiled. Further, the relevancy dates of the underlying datasets could be a limitation.

Variables

The 22 indicators in FEMA CRCI include data points on population and household characteristics, housing, healthcare, economic factors, and connection to community.

To learn more about the Community Resilience Challenges Index, data sources, and to read the RAPT FAQs, visit the RAPT Resource Center.

Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool (RAPT)

https://fema.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=90c0c996a5e242a79345cdbc5f758fc6

In July 2024, FEMA released a version of RAPT build on Esri's new WebApp tool ArcGIS Experience Builder, called Future RAPT. Future RAPT looks different and some of the analysis tools have different steps. Esri will stop supporting RAPT's current platform, WebApp Builder, at the end of 2024 so there will be a transition to Future RAPT in 2025. Access Future RAPT here: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/0a317e8998534c30a9b2d3861c814d42/

Supplemental Information

RAPT Resource Center: https://rapt-fema.hub.arcgis.com/

CRCI Methodology: https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/fema_community-resilience-challenges-index-methodology-report-2023.pdf