Standardization News

ASTM International’s performance of buildings committee (E06) has approved a new standard that provides a generalized and systematic approach for conducting a property resilience assessment (PRA) on a voluntary basis.

According to ASTM member Holly Neber, the new standard (E3429) will be useful to real estate investors, owners, operators, lenders, and insurers who wish to better understand the natural hazards, including those made more extreme by changing climates, that may affect a property.

“A PRA obtained using this guide can be used during real estate investment, development, risk management and reporting, facilities management, capital planning, operations and maintenance, underwriting, or financing activities,” says Neber, CEO, AEI Consultants.

The PRA consists of three stages:

• Stage 1: identifying the natural hazards likely to affect a property;
• Stage 2: evaluating the risks posed by those hazards along with the capacity of the property to prepare for, adapt to, withstand and recover from those hazards;
• Stage 3: identifying conceptual resilience measures to enhance property-level performance and recovery.

“The PRA provides a way for decision makers to understand the physical climate risks that may affect a property, including on-site observations by an engineer or architect regarding the vulnerability of the building to those hazards, as well as identification of potential resilience measures that could improve the property’s ability to withstand and recover from hazards of concern,” says Neber.

The PRA described in E3429 is designed to accompany phase I environmental site assessment, as presented in ASTM standard E1527; and property condition assessment, covered in ASTM E2018.

This effort directly relates to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #11 on sustainable cities and communities.

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