Evaluating Resilience in the Water Sector: Application of the Utility Resilience Index (URI)

This research seeks to develop an all-hazard resiliency index to evaluate the level of preparedness within water sector utilities. A system level assessment is developed to support the prioritization and distribution of limited resources. The index is dependent on individual utility data to establish the baseline, and the indicators used are derived from data that are regularly available to a utility manager. When the indicator data are aggregated and normalized, the index provides a functional representation of a utility’s current state of resilience. The all-hazard utility resilience index is critical to facilitating the rapid assessment of potential gaps in a utility’s capacity to respond and recover quickly from an incident. The Utility Resiliency Index (URI) supports decision management for resource allocation to mitigate and/or enhance observed deficiencies.