Dyson College of Arts and Sciences
Issue link: http://dysoncollege.uberflip.com/i/128987
and to establish metrics to track resilience. Pragmatic adaptation to changing conditions can enhance resilience. Moving Ahead: A Next Generation of Studies Institutions with resilience, such as great cities, universities, or religious orders, reinvent themselves. Resilient systems embrace and adapt to changing conditions. After the first earthquake, a vase shaken off its place may be placed again back on a shelf, but after it survives a second quake, it seems folly not to place it on the floor. We forget at our peril. Three-foot tall stone tablets were erected in Japan to warn about Tsunami wave heights that occurred in 1611 and still stand today. These sturdy warning tablets, from one generation to another, were ignored by residents of the Fukushima coast. New developments were built, behind the false security of sea walls erected despite the tablets' message. Resilient systems compensate for human tendencies toward complacence, and build in systems to keep long-term memories alive. The Dutch remember 1953, and this motivates their preparedness today. A floodplain "remembers" the last flood, and a scientist can discern its historic contours, although the general public, or short-term real estate developer, may forget. Post-disaster redevelopment systems do not yet truly exist. In their place, humans, companies, and governments muddle through. The current focus on security-related disaster preparedness is only a first phase of needed social reforms. The next phases will need to examine comprehensive adaptation planning for the post-disaster longterm sustainable development of the entire community. A society's preferences in the coming phase should be informed by scientific knowledge; studies should be undertaken widely in the wake of anticipated or experienced environmental disruptions. To determine what human society wants its post-disaster recovery to be, studies should assess what practical aspects of resilience can be designed and deployed. The Pace Summit on Resilience has laid a foundation for further studies that will enable societies to design their post-disaster lives. As President Friedman observed, this is all about more than just business continuity, it is about "life continuity." The agenda for a next generation of studies is taking shape. 44