Rethinking infrastructure design from component failure to systemic resilience.

ABSTRACT: Bridge design typically uses load-based design criteria focused on risk thresholds from engineering practice and standards, overlooking cascading effects on connected infrastructure and regional economies. We argue for a systems-based design that balances risk reduction with resilience - the capacity to recover from disruptions. Using the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse as a case study, we estimate economic impacts assuming impact on local transportation networks only as well as integrating cascading failures on surrounding infrastructure (e.g., closure of the Port of Baltimore), employing the regional economic model TranSight. Results show combined bridge-and-port disruptions produce substantially larger losses in GDP, employment, disposable income, and labor force, with some indicators

SUBMITTER: Dulin S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12583699 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature