Session

Infrastructure is the foundational structure on which society is built. In practice, this simple definition often holds, as our infrastructure consists of complex networks of long-lasting and interconnected systems that serve specific place-based societal needs.

Examples of different types of infrastructure include communication networks, transportation systems, the energy grid, and buildings. These infrastructures provide services that, if accessible, can enhance human well-being, facilitate economic growth, and benefit the environment. However, the escalating impacts of climate and other future risks not only endanger current infrastructure but also risk widening social inequalities and increasing environmental degradation.

The severity of impacts arising from these issues hinges on the risk of disruption they pose to infrastructure systems and the built environment. However, any assessment of this risk inherently will come with uncertainty regarding the presence or scale of disruption. Ultimately, the resilience of infrastructure systems to disruption will be contingent on decision-making now and into the future.

This session will present a proposed framework for resilient infrastructure planning, based on mixed-method research. The framework proposes how to apply a complex systems approach to place-based policy formation for enhancing infrastructure resilience. Its broader impact lies in refining a dynamic, contextually relevant policy tool that could help policymakers make scientifically informed decisions for long-term infrastructure resilience with implications for codes, standards, planning, and design. The framework includes practical applications of advances in downscaled climate modeling and decision-making in the face of future uncertainty.

Presenters will explore several research questions that led to the framework. First, they propose a process for incorporating a social, ecological, and technological systems perspective of how infrastructure by modeling current states, future scenarios, and planning and policy responses can create new, effective pathways for enhancing resilience and sustainability in response to future risks, including climate change. They will examine whether a framework for resilient infrastructure planning can identify additional risks to and opportunities for infrastructure resilience compared with current methods. Case studies will be used to explore whether the proposed framework can uncover new or more efficient policy pathways for improving infrastructure resilience. These case studies will assess how well the framework can identify opportunities, barriers, or pathways to achieving the future goals for infrastructure function and resilience.

Session participants will leave with a clear understanding of how the proposed framework can apply to their work at multiple scales, from building and infrastructure systems engineering to planning to policy making.

Learning Objectives:

• Analyze the impact of climate on the built environment: Assess how climate and other future risks threaten infrastructure systems and how these disruptions can further social inequalities and environmental degradation.
• Evaluate methods for enhancing built environment resilience: Describe the benefits of a mixed-methods research approach to testing the efficacy of a proposed framework for resilient infrastructure planning.
• Explore pathways for policy and resilience: Investigate the incorporation of social, ecological, and technological systems perspectives in modeling infrastructure resilience, and examine how this framework can identify new risks, opportunities, and efficient policy pathways for infrastructure resilience.
• Demonstrate how a framework for resilient infrastructure planning could contribute to policy formation for enhancing infrastructure resilience: Describe the potential impacts on codes, planning guidelines, and the design and engineering of the built environment and infrastructure systems.