Assessing community disaster resilience using a balanced scorecard: lessons learnt from three Australian communities

Abstract

In 2012, the Torrens Resilience Institute (TRI) developed a balanced Scorecard for communities to assess their disaster resilience using an all-hazards approach. The Scorecard assesses four components of community resilience: connectedness, risk and vulnerability, procedures that support disaster planning, response and recovery (PRR), and PRR resources. The recommended process for completing the Scorecard is for the community to form a representative working group and meet three times over a few weeks to discuss and score the items. From June 2014 to June 2015, the TRI evaluated the Scorecard. Prospective local councils received information about the Scorecard via circulars from local government associations. Sixteen councils expressed interest and three of these implemented the Scorecard. This paper reports on the findings from three communities that implemented the Scorecard.