ABSTRACT
Our structures and infrastructure systems are exposed to an array of threats throughout their lifetime, including both chronic and acute stressors that pose a risk of damage and cascading consequences to social, environmental and economic systems. These stressors include aging and deterioration, increased demand by a growing population, and natural hazards that may become more frequent with climate change. Even a given natural hazard event, such as a hurricane event, brings complex multi-hazard storm conditions that challenge the performance of built infrastructure along with modern risk assessment tools. This paper examines two pervasive themes in life-cycle civil engineering, namely resilience and sustainability, and explores their intersection and quantification. The role of life-cycle civil engineering in supporting broader interdisciplinary sustainability and resilience quantification is highlighted, along with recent progress and future opportunities. The paper is organized around select questions that underpin the quest for multi-hazard resilient and sustainable infrastructure. For example: What are the relative risks posed by various threats to infrastructure performance and how do they interact? How have the risks to infrastructure co-evolved with policies and socio-demographic shifts? What technological or computational tools enable the advancement of future resilient and sustainable infrastructure? Case studies using bridge and transportation infrastructure as well as energy and industrial infrastructure illustrate risk-based frameworks for quantifying indicators of infrastructure resilience and sustainability while probing alternative design and management strategies in support of “The Quest”.
