RISC: A Proven & Customizable Framework to Assess Infrastructure Needs and Drive Resilience
A unified assessment and action plan is critical to building long-term resilience in your community.
Understand and Prioritize Risks
Identify vulnerabilities and their impacts on your economy and community across all infrastructure sectors.
Plan Proactively
Define and prioritize infrastructure projects that enhance resilience and enable sustainable growth.
Engage Stakeholders Effectively
Align public and private sector goals to gain support for climate action and regional investment.
Collaborative Impact, Lasting results.
Fosterra works side by side with communities to deliver projects that strengthen the environment and economy while empowering your region with lasting knowledge and planning tools.
We understand how infrastructure failures impact your community, causing business disruptions, property damage, and increasing public safety risks. Our RISC framework helps you prepare, prevent, and protect.
Our Approach: Practical, Participatory, and Purpose-Driven
Fosterra’s RISC (Resilience Infrastructure Strategic Collaboration) framework is built on a clear understanding: rural and remote communities require solutions that reflect their unique characteristics. Our approach is grounded in collaboration, regional relevance, and actionable outcomes. We don’t believe in one-size-fits-all strategies. Instead, RISC unifies data, lived experiences, and cross-sector insights to shape forward-looking infrastructure and resiliency plans.
How we do it
Locally Informed, Expert Guided
We combine technical analysis with local wisdom. Our teams work closely with community stakeholders including from government agencies and local businesses to co-develop insights that are both technically sound and grounded in local priorities.
Data-Driven Vulnerability Mapping
Using geospatial data, climate projections, and existing infrastructure assessments, we identify vulnerabilities across critical systems such as energy, transportation, water, and communications. This informs priority setting and investment alignment.
Scenario planning & Stress testing
RISC includes modeling of potential disruption scenarios, from climate-related events to economic shocks, to test the resilience of current infrastructure and proposed strategies.
Integrated planning across Systems
Infrastructure doesn’t exist in silos, and neither do our recommendations. RISC identifies interdependencies and encourages solutions that deliver co-benefits across systems and sectors enabling resilience, economic development, and environmental health.
Adaptive & Modular design
Our framework is flexible by design. It can be adapted to serve individual communities to regional clusters with scalable methods and tools, suited to both small-scale and large-scale applications.
RISC Process Flow
Partner Perspectives on RISC in Action
“This important project and final report marks the start of improved collaboration among all those responsible for our County’s critical infrastructure.”
“This assessment fills a critical planning gap and provides a clear roadmap to attract investments that boost both the economy and the well-being of our community.”
Deliverables That Drive Action
At the conclusion of each RISC engagement, clients receive a comprehensive suite of deliverables that go beyond reporting and include tools for advocacy, investment, and implementation. These include:
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A detailed analysis of current conditions, infrastructure vulernaribilities, climate risks, and community priorities, supported by visuals, data tables, and geospatial overlays.
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A transparent account of stakeholder input, including key themes, community-identified challenges and opportunities, and outcomes from workshops, interviews, and surveys.
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A practical and phased action plan with short-term strategies, tailored to each community’s risks and development trajectory.
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A dynamic tool to help decision-makers compare and evaluate potential investments based on impact, urgency, cost, feasibility, and community support.
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A curated list of applicable state and federal programs, grants, and regulatory pathways that can help communities fund and implement their priority projects.
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Visual aids, executive summaries, and briefing decks designed to help local leaders communicate key findings and advocate for support with stakeholders, funders, and policymakers.
Learn more about our RISC report for Saratoga County, NY