Iris Tien

Technical Notes: Investing in infrastructure with resilience, sustainability, and equity in mind

June 13, 2022

Infrastructure is the built world around us, including the basic physical structures and organizational facilities (roads, bridge, power grid, clean water, etc.) that society needs to operate. The recent passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act  has brought increased attention to the current state of U.S. infrastructure, which scored a C- in ASCE’s most recent 2021 Infrastructure Report Card. Now is the time to think about what our infrastructure will look like in the future. In a new forum article in the Journal of Infrastructure Systems, author Iris Tien writes that a forward-looking approach will lead to infrastructure that is more resilient, sustainable, and equitable.

In “Recommendations for Investing in Infrastructure at the Intersection of Resilience, Sustainability, and Equity,” Tien offers seven recommendations for how we should think about and invest in infrastructure to achieve resilience, sustainability, and equity goals. She begins with our reactive approach to infrastructure. In most cases, we have waited for problems to arise before addressing them, rather than proactively maintaining the built environment. We need to shift our focus to anticipate problems in the future before things fail. She continues by recommending planning timelines and implementing risk-based approaches during the design and decision-making process, including cyber-security risks. And encourages cross-sector activities, that will break down traditional silos and look at infrastructure as an interdependent network. Read this thought-provoking piece outlining Tien’s infrastructure investment recommendations at https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)IS.1943-555X.0000684.