To produce the FEMA Community Resilience Challenges Index (CRCI), FEMA and Argonne National Laboratory identified commonly used indicators across relevant peer-reviewed methodologies published from 2003 to 2021. 

This approach captures multiple research perspectives rather than choosing one methodology among many. 

The research process is documented in the Community Resilience Challenges Index report. 

A literature review of peer-reviewed research identified 91 peer-reviewed methodologies that examine community resilience and social vulnerability. To determine the methodologies that have broad application for emergency managers, the research team applied six criteria:   

•   Data available at least at the County level
•   Generalize hazard risk, not a single hazard 
•   Pre-disaster community conditions 
•   Quantitative measures
•   Publicly available methodology
•   Publicly available data sources.

The following 14 methodologies met all six criteria. 

Next, the FEMA/Argonne research team reviewed the indicators used in each of the 14 methodologies and selected those indicators used in five or more methodologies. Indicators used in multiple methodologies suggests researcher agreement on the importance of the indicator. 

The FEMA CRCI is a percentile value measured for each of the 22 commonly used indicators. Higher percentiles indicate higher potential challenges to resilience. The FEMA CRCI is produced for counties and census tracts.

The FEMA CRCI and each of the 22 commonly used indicators are included in the Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool (RAPT), an interactive GIS web map. NOTE: RAPT also includes several other data layers focused on equity and emergency management operations.

To provide a visual representation of the data in RAPT, the FEMA/Argonne research team used common statistical methods and data structuring software to sort the county data and tribal data into 5 color-coded bins and the census tract data into 7 color-coded bins. Darker colors represent potential greater challenges to resilience. 

In addition to this visual data range, RAPT includes the specific data point for each geographical area. Spreadsheets for all counties, census tracts, and tribal boundary data points are available for download on the RAPT Resource Center, in the Data Sources tab.  

In addition to the composite FEMA CRCI value, RAPT includes data points for each of the 22 commonly used indicators. This provides richer community analysis to support emergency management responsibilities than an index alone. 

For each of the 22 commonly used indicators, the FEMA/Argonne research team cataloged the authors’ rationale for including the indicator in their methodology. These are listed in Appendix C of the Community Resilience Challenges Index report and are included as the Connection to Resilience in the Indicator Maps below.

Continue to scroll to view the Indictor Maps of each indicator. NOTE: Maps may take a moment to load.