A Methodology to Support Decisions for Life-Cycle Investment Planning and Enhancement of Performance and Recovery Times

The performance of lifeline infrastructure and buildings, as well as their operations after a natural hazard event depend on multiple factors, including the original design and the current condition and capacity of the structure or infrastructure and network to resist the risks posed by hazards. Rapid recovery or uninterrupted operation can minimize disruptions and downtime, decrease costs associated with repair and rebuilding, and lessen the overall economic burdens on communities and individuals impacted by natural hazards. Given the age, condition, and original design of infrastructure systems across a community, the built environment may not perform well during natural hazard events.

During this webinar, the speaker will discuss the framework of Functional Recovery developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as a better-than code approach for the design and recovery of our built environment. The associated methodology, RE$I$T developed by NIST as a tool to enhance the practice of functional recovery for transportation networks will be introduced. The background, methods, and latest developments on this topic – in line with the newly published FHWA Report on “Improving Transportation Infrastructure Resilience through Post-event Damage Inspection (PDI) and Post-event Engineering Investigation (PEI) – will be discussed, with emphasis on the seismic and flood hazards.

An example of a case study with actual resilience and return on investments quantifications will be presented. Finally, the potential applicability and stakeholder collaboration in the NJ area will be discussed as an opportunity to prioritize investment planning for the enhancement of performance and recovery time of the regional transportation networks, while improving life-cycle considerations.

Disclaimer: The opinions, recommendations, findings, and conclusions in this talk are of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the National Institute of Standards and Technology or the United States Government.