"The resilience
frame speaks not just to how buildings weather storms but to how people weather
them, too. Here, psychologists, sociologists and neuroscientists are uncovering
a wide array of factors that make you more or less resilient than the person
next to you: the reach of your social networks, the quality of your close
relationships, your access to resources, your genes and health, your beliefs
and habits of mind.
For example,
“resilience thinking” is starting to shape how urban planners in big cities
think about updating antiquated infrastructure, much of which is robust in the
face of normal threats like equipment failures but — as was just demonstrated
in the New York region — fragile in the face of unanticipated shocks like
flooding, pandemics, terrorism or energy shortages.
“After 9/11, Lower
Manhattan contained the largest collection of LEED-certified, green buildings
in the world,” he said, referring to a rating program for eco-friendly design.
“But that was answering only part of problem. The buildings were designed to
generate lower environmental impacts, but not to respond to the impacts of the
environment” — for example, by having redundant power systems."Source: NYT
