Planning for Community Resilience

“Planning for Community Resilience makes it abundantly clear that we must begin to add more focus on mitigation when planning for natural disasters and hazards.”– “Spacing”“Planning for Community Resilience: A Handbook for Reducing Disasters is a comprehensive book, which is quite an achievement in less than 200 pages. The book begins with a compelling explanation of the emerging threat, pulling no punches with the introductory chapter: ‘The Era of Catastrophes.’ It then outlines an overall approach to resilience preparedness, a seven-step process that forms the structure of the book… the authors have done an impressive job of assembling a great deal of material from different disciplines. It is rare to come across planners presenting a handbook that also talks about issues of power and participation, critical–but often overlooked–elements of community engagement and action.”– “Nature of Cities”“Planning for Community Resilience provides needed emphasis on the crucial role of social and economic attributes in hazard resiliency. Through simple directions and illustrations, the authors demonstrate how to integrate relevant Census indicators into community mapping to identify and address pockets of social vulnerability.”–Dr. Betty Hearn Morrow, Professor Emerita, Florida International University

Jaimie Hicks Masterson is the Program Coordinator of Texas Target Cities at Texas A&M University. Walter Gillis Peacock, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning and Director of the Hazard Reduction & Recovery Center at Texas A&M University. Shannon S. Van Zandt, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning and the Director of the Center for Housing and Urban Development at Texas A&M University. Himanshu Grover, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban Planning and Regional Planning at the University of Buffalo. Lori Feild Schwarz is the Comprehensive Planning Manager for the City of Plano, Texas. John Cooper, Jr., is Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning at Texas A&M University.