Some communities are well on their way to achieving community resilience. In general, they incorporate continuity planning, risk management, and long-term community resilience into all of their goals and public safety plans.

Our nation's economy depends on robust transportation systems—over land, water, and air—and supply chains to move raw materials and goods across the country and around the world. Similarly, urban communities depend on interconnected transportation systems to facilitate distribution of food, energy, and other goods among homes and businesses, and to move people to their jobs and other activities as efficiently as possible.

Urban and community planners use terms such as commercial, residential, industrial, institutional, and park to describe how people use land. Zoning is a means by which communities seek to regulate land use. Zoning ordinances have significant impacts on land use by limiting what developers and landowners can do with their properties, ideally advancing public health, safety, and welfare in the process. Other local government tools for influencing land use include subdivision regulations, development incentives, and building codes.

Across the United States, local government agencies are typically responsible for the collection, treatment, and management of sewage and wastewater. For large cities and small towns alike, the main goal of managing wastewater is to ensure public health and the health of our waterways. In some cases, the goal extends to being able to use treated wastewater as part of a city’s water supply.

In our technologically advanced world, a continuous supply of energy—including effective back-up strategies—is critical for safety and comfort. Energy is also necessary to power critical infrastructure and businesses that keep people working and our economy functioning. Without a constant energy supply, many of today’s businesses simply will not function. For example, internet commerce, airline operations, and financial markets are totally dependent on continual access to energy.

The challenges posed by climate change are significantly altering the types and magnitudes of hazards and vulnerabilities that communities, emergency management professionals, and planners face today. In light of the range of multi-hazard risks and location-specific vulnerabilities, emergency managers may need to simultaneously respond to disasters and support preparedness efforts through comprehensive planning.

The impacts of climate change can pose significant challenges to existing built infrastructure. Many of our nation’s infrastructure elements—including buildings of all types, as well as components of our energy, transportation, water, and sanitation systems—were not built to withstand the impending range of climate conditions and increased frequency of extreme weather events projected for the future.