The International Code Council and the Alliance for National & Community Resilience (ANCR) announced its selection of a group of renowned subject matter experts to assist in the development of the U.S.’s first whole-community resilience benchmarks related to water systems.

The ANCR Water Technical Committee will determine the criteria to evaluate a community’s capacity, risk awareness, competence and resources to respond to disasters or other events that affect the quality or availability of water. It consists of government experts, utility representatives, engineers and other industry professionals from the New York City Department of Buildings, National Center for Computational Hydroscience and Engineering, Association of Water Technologists and more. The full roster of subject matter specialists is available here.

“Water is an essential component for resilient communities. From access to clean drinking water to functioning sewage systems, communities must ensure that their water systems are strong, resistant to damage and quick to recover after an incident,” said ANCR’s Chairman Maj. General Warren C. Edwards USA (Ret.). “We are excited to have this distinguished group of water experts to discuss the best ways to measure and prepare communities for a potential disaster.”

The water committee is the second group of subject matter experts that ANCR has brought together to discuss the future of resilience in the U.S. In March, the ANCR Resilient Buildings Technical Committee met for the first time. Since then, nearly 30 resilience experts from around the nation have engaged in regular, thoughtful dialogue about benchmarks for resilient buildings. A final benchmark for resilient commercial buildings will likely be released in late summer 2018. American communities will then be able to use this benchmark as a certified self-assessment to review their current resilience level and as a roadmap to a more resilient building stock in the future.

Next, ANCR will stand up a resilient residential housing and construction committee. Openings are available, and applications are still being accepted. Contact ResilientAlliance@gmail.com for more information.