Infrastructure Resilience

NIST helps make the nation’s infrastructure — including hospitals and energy and communications systems — safer, more interoperable and more resilient.

Disaster and Failure Studies

NIST has both a leadership and research role in the Congressionally mandated National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program, which brings together multiple agencies to coordinate the government’s approach to disaster events. NIST has expertise in studies that lead to improved design and codes for the built environment. For example, the Joplin, Missouri, tornado investigation led to recommendations for building codes, standards and practices to make buildings and emergency operations across the U.S. more resilient. The active Hurricane Maria and Champlain Towers South investigations will help make our infrastructure more resilient and our buildings safer.

Community Resilience

The Community Resilience program provides planning tools, such as NIST Economic Decision Guide Software (EDGe$), to measure costs and benefits of resilience investments to support community-level decisions. It also offers guidelines, such as NIST Community Resilience Planning Guide for Buildings and Infrastructure Systems, that can help communities plan for anticipated hazards, adapt to changing conditions, and withstand and recover rapidly from disruptions.

The Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) national network serves as an integral part of enhancing community resilience by supporting small and medium-sized manufacturers. MEP centers can conduct assessments to determine manufacturers’ needs in preparing for disaster-related events as well as for restoring operations and serving as enablers of recovery after disasters.  

Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires

Fires within communities surrounded by natural areas are the most dangerous and costliest fires in North America. NIST-led research and post-fire investigations, such as the one for the Camp Fire that burned for 18 days in California in 2018, are providing the scientific basis for reducing a WUI community’s fire risk. NIST also operates the National Fire Research Laboratory — a unique experimental facility dedicated to understanding fire behavior and structural response to fire.

Connected Systems Resilience

Smart connected systems and infrastructure have a significant impact on people’s lives, and must be designed for resilience against faults, attacks and the increasing number of climate-related disruptions. Smart connected systems incorporate Internet of Things (IoT) and cyber-physical systems (CPS). NIST is supporting the resilience and trustworthiness of these systems through  the Universal CPS Environment for Federation (UCEF) platform. UCEF is being developed to support NIST’s smart cities and communities program, which includes the Global City Teams Challenge.