Resource

The Disaster Planning Integration Toolkit (DPIT) is a web-based application and resource library search engine with a suggested planning process that enables rural communities to use an asset-based approach to developing their Community Development Resilience Plan (CDRP) by integrating disaster resilience, economic development and green infrastructure. The toolkit contains both quantitative and qualitative tools to facilitate inclusive, participatory, community-centric planning.

The two quantitative components include:

• A county-level disaster risk assessment dashboard which helps communities assess their housing, infrastructural, economic, community health and environmental risks to understand the vulnerabilities of their populations and economies to disasters. An interactive resilience map is included, and a pop-up dialogue box allows the user to open a PDF report that contains county level data that includes a disaster resiliency score, census tract county, and indicator rankings for housing, economy, community health, infrastructure, and environment. Apart from visualizations, the reports also contain links to useful documents extracted from the DPIT Resource Library (below), and a comprehensive indicator value, definition, and risk interpretation list present as an appendix to the report.

• An online resource library (DPIT Resource Library) that includes information surveys, planning processes, strategies, and funding mechanisms that rural communities can use to inform their planning process. The library includes 3 search interfaces including dropdown menus, a search bar, and frequently used terms. Users can search from drop-down menus by document type, planning areas, type of disaster, and planning components. The DPIT Resource Library is integrated into the
assessment tool and information from the library database feeds into the assessment tool, with a focus on delivering information for areas of concern identified in the county assessment. Together, the assessment tool and the resource library are integrated into a comprehensive planning framework that enables communities at different stages of planning expertise to prepare for and mitigate the hazardous impacts of disasters on their environmental and economic conditions. Apart from addressing a range of disaster-related externalities, the project strengthens existing connections between community resiliency and strategic planning with disaster preparedness planning. This process includes an environmental scan of local conditions (including county assessment report), plan development, goal/strategy/project identification, and consultation with the DPIT Resource Library for further resources. CDRP combines the assessment tool and resource library as primary resources to inform the process. While the initial focus of this project was rural Illinois, the assessment tool has been designed so that other states can implement the tool with a few adjustments to the code. A Developer’s Guide was created to aid in the implementation of the assessment tool and supporting data. A Facilitator’s Guide was also developed that provides a step-by-step process for
Extension professionals and others to use the toolkit as a planning resource for communities lacking the personnel. Both the assessment tool and the resource library will be accessible via a dedicated website that is under development and will be housed on the EDEN homepage (expected completion date: July 31, 2023).