Spring 2011, Vol 13, No. 2

D. Alexander

This paper offers a working definition of resilience and associated concepts, including vulnerability to earthquakes, coping, capacity and redundancy. It concludes that resilience must be set in motion and maintained by a collective effort that involves all stakeholders and people who are at risk. The paper offers ten suggestions for action in order to create a methodology for resilience against earthquakes. They are as follows. Tell people what to do in an earthquake. Develop urban search and rescue capacity on site. Reduce non-structural as well as structural hazards. Plan flexibly and make emergency planning a process, not an end. Create networks that can improve the exchange of knowledge, information and training. Encourage governance by involving different stakeholders in earthquake disaster risk reduction. Make good practice proliferate and adapt it to local circumstances. Ensure that programmes of disaster risk reduction are sustainable in the long term. Before the next major seismic event occurs, create a strategy for recovering from it. Create a culture of resilience against earthquakes, in which the problem is widely understood and taken seriously by people who are at risk or are in positions of authority.