An Integrated Approach for Resilience and Sustainability in Geotechnical Engineering

Abstract

Excessive consumption of energy and natural resources and generation of pollutants are the main reasons why sustainable practices should be strongly advocated in geotechnical engineering. Resilience, on the other hand, is also important as it improves the ability to cope with uncertain yet extreme events that may occur over the long life cycle of geotechnical infrastructure. There has been increasing recognition that sustainability needs to be incorporated and practiced in geotechnical engineering, but little attention has been paid on incorporating resilience although sustainability and resilience share similar objectives and values. A geotechnical infrastructure may not be truly sustainable if it is not resilient against extreme events and climate change because undesirable consequences caused by the failure of geotechnical infrastructure make the system unsustainable. It is important that the concepts of sustainability and resilience are concurrently considered to ensure that resilience in geotechnical infrastructure is developed while sustainable practices are performed. This paper presents an overview of the key concepts of sustainability and resilience with a particular emphasis on resilience in order to understand the differences and connections between the two. The quantitative and qualitative assessment methods of resilience are also discussed. An integrated assessment framework for the quantification of resilience and sustainability of geotechnical infrastructure is proposed, which is developed based on the driver-pressure-state-impact-response (DPSIR) framework.