Resilience Warrant of Fitness

The resilience “Warrant of Fitness” project aimed to test, refine and enhance the New Zealand Resilience Index (NZRI). The project aimed to provide a measure of resilience that incorporates the views of those living and working in the communities being measured, producing a more holistic understanding of resilience capabilities. Specifically, we partnered with the Wellington Regional Emergency Management Office (WREMO) to aid with the development of their Group Plan, connecting indicators of resilience to WREMO’s vision of a resilient community that is ready, connected, and capable of responding to and recovering from a disaster.

As well as developing indicators of resilience across a multi-capital model for the WREMO Group Plan, the project highlighted the necessity of balancing the unique needs of both researchers and practitioners during resilience research and development. A balanced approach ensures everyone benefits from the collaboration, leading to better improvements for communities.

Additionally, consultation with Disaster Risk Reduction (DDR) and resilience practitioners led us to reconsider the types of indicators included in the NZRI. This demonstrates the importance of practice informing science, as well as science informing practice. Such two-way conversations and collaborations are vital for pooling collective knowledge about a complex system like ‘resilience’.

The Warrant of Fitness project made important steps to bridging the gap between science and practice, with the aim of improving resilience in place-based communities. In line with the Sendai Framework, the team produced actionable knowledge that can be used by different groups to address resilience issues in their communities.