ABSTRACT
Critical infrastructure has become a centerpiece of public policy, planning and management. Some of this attention has been driven by catastrophic impacts of natural hazards and other extreme events on infrastructure, its users and those in its path, especially in urban settings. The World Bank (2013, p. 6) notes that infrastructure sectors account for 31 percent of the physical damage from hydrometeorologic disasters (based on 72 events between 1972 and 2013), and 17 percent of economic loss globally. The U.S. Global Change Research Program identifies infrastructure sectors as key targets of climate change impacts (Melillo et al., 2014). Concepts of resilience have emerged in many disciplines—physical, engineering, social, environmental and others (Gay and Sinha, 2013, p. 332; Vale, 2014, p. 192)—many of which address resilient infrastructure either directly or indirectly. Although threats to infrastructure and social environments are numerous and varied, a common thread exists that supports a unified approach to resilient infrastructure.
