A critical assessment of selected urban resilience decision-support tools in the United States

The concept of resilience has gained increasing prominence in research and policy discussions. Various web-based data visualization tools have been developed to communicate hazard risks and make complex climate models more accessible to the community. This article presents a comprehensive assessment of 30 selected resilience tools across the U.S. to examine their decision-support capabilities. We conducted an extensive search to shortlist tools from diverse sectors, including public, private, non-profit, and academic organizations, addressing different hazard contexts, such as floods, heatwaves, wildfires, storms, infrastructure failures, and land degradation. We designed and applied a broad-based analytical framework to assess the tools' performance, encompassing the comprehensiveness of indicator systems, robustness of design and visual communication, scenario planning to handle uncertainties, participatory and interactive approaches, and decision-support and action-enabling characteristics. Several notable findings emerge from this study: (a) resilience tools overwhelmingly include environmental datasets while overlooking social and institutional dimensions, necessary to capture the complexity of urban systems; (b) minimal integration of city and neighborhood level information poses barriers to localized assessments and adaptation planning; (c) while the tools effectively communicate vulnerability, future innovations in scenario-based planning utilizing AI, real-time data, and predictive modeling capabilities are needed to plan for a dynamic and uncertain future; and (d) these tools must foster an interoperable design for users to combine new data layers to adjust their resilience assessments to local contexts. This study outlines future research and development avenues, providing resilience planners and decision-makers with a strategic foresight to enhance computer-based applications for assessing, planning, and managing disaster risks to human and urban systems. • A framework is developed for assessing the performance of resilience tools. • Social and institutional dimensions are underrepresented in the tools, • More emphasis on scenario planning is needed to handle uncertainties. • Inadequate representation of local government datasets limits the potential for adoption. • Harmonizing an interoperable design is essential for user-driven customized assessments.