Resilient Infrastructure Systems Research Articles

The contribution of data-driven geotechnical assessments to infrastructure development and national economy

In the evolving landscape of geotechnical engineering, the advent of data-driven assessments heralds a paradigm shift, promising to redefine the contours of infrastructure development. This paper embarks on an intellectual quest to elucidate the evolution, significance, and transformative impact of these assessments, weaving through the complex interplay between technological advancements and traditional methodologies. Anchored in a robust methodological framework, the study employs a thematic analysis of peer-reviewed literature, aiming to distill the essence of data-driven approaches within the realm of geotechnical engineering and their consequential role in sculpting resilient, sustainable infrastructure. The scope of this scholarly endeavor spans an examination of the economic implications, challenges, and future directions of geotechnical assessments, culminating in strategic recommendations poised to navigate the labyrinth of implementation hurdles. Key findings illuminate the enhanced quality, safety, and economic efficiency engendered by these modern methodologies, juxtaposed against the backdrop of traditional practices. The study's conclusions advocate for a harmonious integration of green technologies, stakeholder engagement, and policy reformulation, underscoring the imperative for a concerted effort towards sustainable infrastructure development. In essence, this paper not only achieves its aim of delineating the pivotal role of data-driven geotechnical assessments but also charts a course towards a future where infrastructure development is synonymous with innovation, sustainability, and economic viability. Recommendations call for an increased infusion of green investments and the fostering of collaborative frameworks, heralding a new dawn in the quest for resilient infrastructure systems.

Frequency and power shaving controller for grid-connected vanadium redox flow batteries for improved energy storage systems

In this research, the performance of vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) in grid-connected energy storage systems centering on frequency and power sharing using voltage source inverters was evaluated. VRFBs are increasingly promising due to their scalability and long lifespan. We explore the impact of voltage source inverters on the frequency of the power supply when there is a change in load and power sharing between the grid and VRFB through MATLAB simulations. The test system demonstrates a storage system at an 11-kV substation and considers a load profile commencing from residential and commercial consumers. The outcome of this study reveals that VRFBs provide the required power to maintain load demand. Due to fast response time, VRFBs also regulate the frequency efficiently during the change in load demand and maintaining current total harmonic distortions (THDs). This research confirms the design and operation of VRFB-based energy storage systems, contributing to resilient grid infrastructure and reliable power distribution systems.

A Pioneering Integration of Structural Health Assessments and Dynamic Analyses: Bridge Pier Responses to the Impact of Floating Objects during Extreme Floods

This study presents a transformative dynamic amplification factor for assessing the resilience of over-river bridges, informed by the real-world conditions of flood events. Through advanced finite element analysis, we unveil how the interplay between mass and velocity of floating objects significantly influences bridge pier responses, challenging conventional assessment methods. Our findings reveal potential inadequacies in current design standards, such as AASHTO and AS5100, and introduces a dynamic multiplier that enhances structural health assessment algorithms. The core contribution of this research is a data-driven analysis approach, which is critical for the proactive maintenance and risk assessment of bridge infrastructures in areas prone to flooding. By redefining the parameters for damage-level identification, our work advocates for a shift towards more resilient infrastructure systems in the face of global climate change.

Electrical properties of ultra-high-performance concrete with various reinforcing fibers

Understanding the electrical properties of ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) is of paramount importance in the realm of smart concrete as it unlocks the potential for creating advanced, intelligent, and resilient infrastructure systems. This study focused on systematically assessing the electrical behaviors of UHPC with two commonly-used reinforcing conductive fillers, i.e. carbon fibers (CFs) and steel fibers (SFs). The effects of fiber type, fiber length, fiber content, and curing age on the alternating current (AC) resistivities and AC electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (AC-EIS) spectra of fiber-reinforced UHPC were investigated, and the equivalent circuit models of fiber-reinforced UHPC were established. Experimental results showed that the AC resistivities of UHPC with CFs and with SFs both exhibited a faster growth rate during the 14–28 d of curing, but subsequently decelerated after the completion of hydration, and stabilized at 90–120 d. Compared with the control sample, the addition of both CFs and SFs resulted in a reduction of the electrical resistivity of UHPC, with a more pronounced decrease observed with higher fiber content. In particular, the addition of SFs demonstrated a more significant reduction in UHPC’s AC resistivity in relative to CFs, with the addition of 4 vol.% copper-plated end-hook SFs remarkably lowering the resistivity by up to 87.5%. Furthermore, the introduction of different types of fibers caused remarkably different AC-EIS topologies of UHPC. The proposed equivalent circuit models reveal that compared to the control sample, the introduction of fibers can provide the fiber-fiber conductive paths and fiber-wrapped hydration products (Q F R F) within UHPC matrix. The role of UHPC matrix (Q 1 (R 1 W 1) in the conductive path of SFs-reinforced UHPC is weakened compared to that of CFs-reinforced UHPC as reflected by the differences in the impedance values of Nyquist plots.

Designing resilient and economically viable water distribution systems: a multi-dimensional approach

Enhancing the resilience of critical infrastructure systems requires substantial investment and entails trade-offs between environmental and economic benefits. To this aim, we propose a methodological framework that combines resilience and economic analyses and assesses the economic viability of alternative resilience designs for a Water Distribution System (WDS) and its interdependent power and transportation systems. Flow-based network models simulate the interdependent infrastructure systems and Global Resilience Analysis (GRA) quantifies three resilience metrics under various disruption scenarios. The economic analysis monetizes the three metrics and compares two resilience strategies involving the installation of remotely controlled shutoff valves. Using the Micropolis synthetic interdependent water-transportation network as an example, we demonstrate how our framework can guide infrastructure stakeholders and utility operators in measuring the value of resilience investments. Overall, our approach highlights the importance of economic analysis in designing resilient infrastructure systems.

Blast response of cantilever retaining wall: Modes of wall movement

For the past few decades, there has been an increase in awareness regarding the safety of highway bridges from blast loads. Since abutments/Retaining walls (RWs) are portions of bridges, investigating abutments/RW or RW behaviour under blast loads is important. As there have not been any studies investigating the dynamic response of retaining walls due to blast loading, an experimental study was conducted to examine the influence of blast loads on the dynamic behaviour of reinforced concrete retaining wall (RCRW) with sand as a backfill material. A shock tube was used to generate blast loads on the soil-RW model. The influence of the relative density, backfill saturation, blast load intensity, and traffic load equivalent surcharge on the blast behaviour of RCRW with sand backfill was studied. The results showed that the modes of wall movement were affected by the backfill relative density, blast load intensities, and degree of saturation. Under the same load conditions, an increase in the wall movement was noticed in loose backfill, and a translation response mode was evident in this condition. A relationship between wall relative movements and mobilized earth pressure coefficients was determined. The mobilized passive resistance of the RW backfill induced by blast load was used to determine the force–displacement relationship. Acceleration time histories for RW/backfill were found for all conditions. The findings of this research will help to properly evaluate and design bridges’ abutment and to develop resilient transportation infrastructure systems.

How can a digital twin sustainably enhance integration and service quality for road authorities?

Towards the vision of cooperative, connected and automated mobility (CCAM) smart road services enabling communication between participants at the information level seem to be necessary. This paper aims at providing a framework for the integration of key concepts like operational design domains (ODD) and infrastructure-based support for automated driving (ISAD) into an umbrella digital twin as developed in the project DIGEST. A prototype concept for advanced forms of information management for a homogenous traffic situation representation is proposed. The concept of ODD Aware Traffic Management provides the ground for the digital twin, which shall support all vehicles in their decision-making. The intermediate project results contribute to the conference theme ‘Innovative Infrastructure for Europe 2030’ with the use of intelligent, resilient and cooperative infrastructure systems.

A Novel Methodology to Assess Seismic Resilience (SR) of Interconnected Infrastructures

Modern and smart cities are significantly vulnerable to natural hazard, and their functionality is based on resilient infrastructure systems. In particular, seismic resilience may be considered the ability to deliver services during and after hazard events. Therefore, it is fundamental to identify the most critical components within a system, especially when multiple infrastructure systems are interdependent. The paper aims to propose a novel methodology that consider interconnected infrastructures to assess seismic resilience that may be defined as a function that depends on time, and the different components are considered the functional dimensions. The proposed methodology may be applied for several typologies of infrastructures, specifically looking at the seismic resilience analyses related to transportation systems. A case study has been considered in order to apply the proposed formulation and to demonstrate the importance of considering interdependency in the assessment of the seismic resilience. Many stakeholders (infrastructure owners, public administrations, decision makers) may be interested in applying the methodology that could be used to study several applications.

Condition-based monitoring as a robust strategy towards sustainable and resilient multi-energy infrastructure systems

ABSTRACT A resilient energy infrastructure system is exceptionally imperative to ensure uninterrupted energy supply to support the nation's economic growth. The resilience capability in energy infrastructures can be realized through effective planning decisions and maintenance strategies by implementing the condition-based monitoring (CBM) approach. CBM minimizes the unplanned downtime of a system by monitoring the system's health status in real-time and predicting upcoming failures. Thus, the planned maintenance can be performed before failures occur. With advancements in data analytics, conventional CBM methods have been enhanced with modern artificial intelligence algorithms to improve the prediction accuracy. This paper comprehensively evaluates the importance of CBM as a robust strategy to enhance energy infrastructure resilience. The vulnerabilities of energy infrastructure and current advancements in data-driven CBM methods are detailed. Furthermore, this survey equip energy infrastructure stakeholders and practitioners with CBM knowledge in managing unforeseen disaster risks, such as power failures due to adverse weather conditions.

A Native American Perspective on Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure in Southern California

Although the needs for sustainable urban infrastructure systems are increasingly being recognized and addressed, the same is not true for Native American communities, where existence, condition, and access to a collection of infrastructure systems is often lagging behind urban and non-native communities. To date, there has been a quite limited number of studies exploring Native American perspectives on infrastructure challenges and how to build sustainable and resilient infrastructure systems in their communities. Thus, the purpose of this study is to identify the challenges and opportunities for building sustainable infrastructure systems for Native American communities in Southern California and investigate how those communities experience, understand, and apply engineering practice in the context of their community and culture. Drawing from six group interviews, our study highlights challenges and opportunities for building sustainable and resilient infrastructure systems on tribal reservations in San Diego County, California, from the perspectives offered by Native Americans themselves. We focus on infrastructure systems fundamental to well-being: built environment, water/wastewater, telecommunications, transportation, energy, human capital, and education. Our research participants emphasized the importance of their cultures, sovereignty, and care for the welfare of their communities in innovating sustainable and resilient infrastructure. To accomplish this, a key priority should be to train native engineers, who are best positioned to understand the infrastructure needs and opportunities in their own communities.

Artificial intelligence-informed planning for the rapid response of hazard-impacted road networks

Post-hazard rapid response has emerged as a promising pathway towards resilient critical infrastructure systems (CISs). Nevertheless, it is challenging to scheme the optimal plan for those rapid responses, given the enormous search space and the hardship of assessment on the spatiotemporal status of CISs. We now present a new approach to post-shock rapid responses of road networks (RNs), based upon lookahead searches supported by machine learning. Following this approach, we examined the resilience-oriented rapid response of a real-world RN across Luchon, France, under destructive earthquake scenarios. Our results show that the introduction of one-step lookahead searches can effectively offset the lack of adaptivity due to the deficient heuristic of rapid responses. Furthermore, the performance of rapid responses following such a strategy is far surpassed, when a series of deep neural networks trained based solely on machine learning, without human interventions, are employed to replace the heuristic and guide the searches.

Current State and Future Direction for Building Resilient Water Resources and Infrastructure Systems

Planning and developing resilient socio-technical and natural systems to cope with and respond to unprecedented changes has been one of the top goals of government bodies, researchers, and practitioners worldwide. This study aims to review how resilience is defined and evaluated in water resources and infrastructure systems (hereafter water systems) and propose a framework to analyze and incorporate resilience in the system. Two questions guide the review: How is resilience defined in water systems compared to other disciplines? What are commonly used resilience measures and methods applicable to water systems? Based on the review, a resilience analysis framework has been proposed. The framework uses a system of systems approach and applies hierarchical holographic modeling to address the complexity of interdependent systems. The resilience of the systems was analyzed using three questions: resilience of what, resilience to what, and resilience for whom. Two resilience measures selected for the analysis are robustness and rapidity. The framework also includes methods for uncertainty analysis, options for resilience strategies, and multi-criteria decision analysis methods to select optimal resilience options. The review is not exhaustive due to the broader topic but aims to present necessary background information to support the proposed framework.

Quantifying disaster resilience of a community with interdependent civil infrastructure systems

Disaster resilient civil infrastructure systems are essential for disaster resilient communities. Measuring the resilience of these systems is the first step towards their improvement. This, however, is not easy: civil infrastructure systems are highly complex, operate in different ways, and are affected differently in different disasters. Adding to the complexity are the dynamic interdependencies among components of such systems, that change as the community is recovering. The Re-CoDeS framework for quantifying disaster resilience measures the lack of resilience of a system (e.g., a community) as the amount of the system’s unmet demand for a considered resource or service over the resilience assessment interval. This paper presents a novel demand/supply-based method to consider dynamic component interdependencies by extending the Re-CoDeS framework: whenever the demand of a component is not met by the currently available supply capacity of the system, that component ceases to operate and its supply capacity decreases. The proposed iRe-CoDeS framework is demonstrated on a virtual community served by three interdependent civil infrastructure systems producing five types of resources and services. Step-by-step instructions for defining a community model within the iRe-CoDeS framework are presented to facilitate the use of the proposed framework.

Sustainability transitions of urban food-energy-water-waste infrastructure: A living laboratory approach for circular economy

Urban areas often face versatile stressors (e.g., food security, congestion, energy shortage, water pollution, water scarcity, waste management, and storm and flooding), requiring better resilient and sustainable infrastructure systems. A system dynamics model (SDM), explored for the urban region of Orlando, Florida, acts as a multi-agent model for portraying material and energy flows across the food, energy, water, and waste (FEWW) sectors to account for urban sustainability transitions. The interlinkages between the FEWW sectors in the SDM are formulated with multiple layers of dependencies and interconnections of the available resources and their external climatic, environmental, and socioeconomic drivers through four case studies (scenarios). The vital components in the integrated FEWW infrastructure system include urban agriculture associated with the East End Market Urban Farm; energy from the fuel-diverse Curtis H. Stanton Energy Center; reclaimed wastewater treated by the Eastern Water Reclamation Facility, the Water Conserv II Water Reclamation Facility, and stormwater reuse; and solid waste management and biogas generation from the Orange County Landfill. The four scenarios evaluated climate change impacts, policy instruments, and land use teleconnection for waste management in the FEWW nexus, demonstrating regional synergies among these components. The use of multicriteria decision-making coupled with cost-benefit-risk tradeoff analysis supported the selection of case 4 as the most appropriate option as it provided greater renewable energy production and stormwater reuse. The SDM graphic user interface aids in the visualization of the dynamics of the FEWW nexus framework, demonstrating the specific role of renewable energy harvesting for sustainably transitioning Orlando into a circular economy.

Multisectoral perspectives toward a sustainable energy transition in Puerto Rico: Implications for the post-2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season.

This study aimed to examine stakeholders' visions, values, perceived barriers, and opportunities for a sustainable energy transition before the 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season and how the stakeholders' perspectives have been manifesting during post-disaster efforts. This study examined working documents generated by an Energy Stakeholders Forum (ESF) and semistructured interviews with key stakeholders in the energy decision-making arena. The data analyzed in this study were collected for 2 years (2015-2016) before Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit Puerto Rico. The ESF had a series of meetings to generate multisectoral dialog and pursue more public participation in energy policy and planning processes. The semistructured interviews were conducted as part of an NSF-Critical Resilient Infrastructure Systems and Processes project investigating stakeholders' perspectives on the electrical system. Thirty-one stakeholders participated in face-to-face semistructured interviews using purposive and snowball sampling. The ESF's meetings not only gathered up to 60 key stakeholders but also were open to the public. This study suggests that stakeholders' perspectives were consistent with the prerequisites for a transition to renewable energy before the 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season. However, even though the conditions of vision and values were present, there was also predisaster inertia from nontechnical barriers preventing the sustainable transition that still prevails in post-disaster Puerto Rico. This paper provides an empirical reflection that ponders Puerto Rico's post-disaster scenario through predisaster stakeholders' perspectives. Emergency management professionals should reflect on why understanding predisaster conditions is critical in order to promote recovery efforts that meet the long-term needs of society and support sustainable development for future generations. The analysis may also reinforce planning for disaster recovery via governance approaches that consider stakeholders' perspectives before disasters strike.

Capturing practitioner perspectives on infrastructure resilience using Q-methodology

Abstract In many disciplines, the resilience concept has applied to managing perturbations, challenges, or shocks in the system and designing an adaptive system. In particular, resilient infrastructure systems have been recognized as an alternative to traditional infrastructure, in which the systems are managed to be more reliable against unforeseen and unknown threats in urban areas. Perhaps owing to the malleable and multidisciplinary nature in the concept of resilience, there is no clear-cut standard that measures and characterizes infrastructure resilience nor how to implement the concept in practice for developing urban infrastructure systems. As a result, unavoidable subjective interpretation of the concept by practitioners and decision-makers occurs in the real world. We demonstrate the subjective perspectives on infrastructure resilience by asking practitioners working in governmental institutions within the metropolitan Phoenix area based on their interpretations of resilience, using Q-methodology. We asked practitioners to prioritize 19 key strategies for infrastructure resilience found in literature in three different decision contexts and recognized six discourses by analyzing the shared or discrete views of the practitioners. We conclude that, from the diverse perspectives on infrastructure resilience observed in this study, practitioners’ interpretation of resilience adds value to theoretical resilience concepts found in the literature by revealing why and how different resilience strategies are preferred and applied in practice.

Review article: Towards resilient vital infrastructure systems – challenges, opportunities, and future research agenda

Abstract. Infrastructure systems are inextricably tied to society by providing a variety of vital services. These systems play a fundamental role in reducing the vulnerability of communities and increasing their resilience to natural and human-induced hazards. While various definitions of resilience for infrastructure systems exist, analyzing the resilience of these systems within cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary perspectives remains limited and fragmented in research and practice. With the aim to assist researchers and practitioners in advancing understanding of resilience in designing infrastructure systems, this systematic literature review synthesizes and complements existing knowledge on designing resilient vital infrastructures by identifying (1) key conceptual tensions and challenges, (2) engineering and non-engineering measures, and (3) directions for future research. Here, a conceptual framework is developed in which infrastructures are defined as a conglomeration of interdependent social–ecological–technical systems. In addition, we define resilient infrastructures as systems with ability to (i) anticipate and absorb disturbances, (ii) adapt/transform in response to changes, (iii) recover, and (iv) learn from prior unforeseen events. Our results indicate that conceptual and practical challenges in designing resilient infrastructures continue to exist. Hence these systems are still being built without taking resilience explicitly into account. Our review of measures and recent applications shows that the available measures have not been widely applied in designing resilient infrastructure systems. Key concerns to address are identified as (i) the integration of social, ecological, and technical resilience of infrastructure systems with explicit attention paid to cascading effects and dependencies across these complex systems and (ii) the development of new technologies to identify factors that create different recovery characteristics.

A strategic framework for resilient and sustainable urban infrastructure systems - an overview, modelling, design and assessment

In this paper, basic concepts of resilience, ecology and sustainability are introduced first. Then, associated performance metrics and interdependency of critical infrastructure systems are presented and discussed. Moreover, the importance of big data (BD) and data mining (DM), as emerging themes in this field, is discussed. Other relevant issues such as how to foster decision making and accountability to plan for any expansion in resilience services, resources, and the associated performance metrics and interdependency of critical infrastructure systems are presented. It is the recommendation of this study that due to the difficulty and complexity of resilience, and its definitional ambiguity, the ability to assess such a concept helps to bridge the gap between theory and application, and between the academic and the policy circles. A framework for creating resilient, ecological and sustainable infrastructure systems is also proposed, as a recommendation, in a more holistic and comprehensive way.

A strategic framework for resilient and sustainable urban infrastructure systems - an overview, modelling, design and assessment

In this paper, basic concepts of resilience, ecology and sustainability are introduced first. Then, associated performance metrics and interdependency of critical infrastructure systems are presented and discussed. Moreover, the importance of big data (BD) and data mining (DM), as emerging themes in this field, is discussed. Other relevant issues such as how to foster decision making and accountability to plan for any expansion in resilience services, resources, and the associated performance metrics and interdependency of critical infrastructure systems are presented. It is the recommendation of this study that due to the difficulty and complexity of resilience, and its definitional ambiguity, the ability to assess such a concept helps to bridge the gap between theory and application, and between the academic and the policy circles. A framework for creating resilient, ecological and sustainable infrastructure systems is also proposed, as a recommendation, in a more holistic and comprehensive way.

On a generic framework for systems resilience modelling of bridges - accounting for historic and cultural values

ABSTRACT Resilient and sustainable traffic infrastructure systems such as bridges play a crucial role in societal economic growth. During the last decades, substantial research has been undertaken for the optimal management of risks associated with extreme events, and the concept of resilience was introduced. The knowledge on the system characteristics affecting resilience is increasing and so is the capability to model and analyze systems. The first step in systems modelling and analysis is to define the system which has not been addressed methodically in the literature. In this contribution, we provide a framework for systems identification in the context of resilience informed management of historic bridges. The proposed approach rests on the indicator-based systems modelling framework of the Joint Committee on Structural Safety (JCSS). With this basis we identify ten resilience indicators which provide information concerning the resilience performances of historic bridges. Finally, we apply the suggested approach through an example.