A Framework for Optimizing Civil Infrastructure Resiliency

Civil infrastructure systems are complex networks of tightly coupled, interdependent subsystems that involve many factors and system constraints. Their resiliency is critical for the proper functioning of society during and following extreme events such as hurricanes and earthquakes. The goal of this paper is to outline the formulation of a framework that provides strategies for increased resiliency. These strategies will be expressed in a common rule-based form of "If- Then" statements. A rule-based model is flexible and can incorporate social performance measures in addition to traditional metrics. The rule-based model also has the capability to reflect the performance of interdependent networks of multiple systems. These rules may be formulated in a manner so as to be incorporated in a multi-objective optimization algorithm that can improve system performance. A brief example of the proposed framework is provided.