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Introduction
Across the nation, communities are taking action to build resilience to extreme events. Community resilience is all about how well a jurisdiction can understand and reduce the impact of chronic stresses and mitigate—and recover from—the shocks that affect its social, economic, natural, and built environments. As communities look to achieve a culture of preparedness with more efficient and effective disaster risk reduction, opportunities exist for researchers, design professionals, and the public and private sectors to help advance their efforts using innovative technologies, such as advances in seismology tools and infrastructure monitoring devices. The Resilient America Roundtable (RAR) provides one venue for current research, science, and evidence-based foundations to inform whole community strategies for building resilience. In an effort to develop relationships and promote dialogue and community exchange, the RAR—in partnership with the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Structural Engineering Institute (SEI), and the Advances in Information Technology Committee—co-hosted a one-day workshop on September 26, 2017. The event brought together experts, practitioners, and researchers from the public, private, and academic sectors to: 1) enhance resilience and promote faster recovery by exploring the role of advanced technologies and structural performance data in existing infrastructure and built systems; 2) discuss the future role of advanced technologies and design practice in promoting community resilience; and 3) identify research gaps or opportunities in development and use of advanced technologies and design for building resilient infrastructure.
The workshop featured moderated panel discussions that addressed questions such as:
- How can infrastructure investments today ensure resilience in communities in the future and across the design life of the infrastructure?
- How can new technologies be integrated into current infrastructure and planning to build resilience?
- How can decision makers build flexibility into their current decisions and initiatives to account for innovation and technological advancements to come?
- How can decision makers, planners, and other stakeholders effectively use emerging technologies and innovations with current and future infrastructure projects and initiatives?
The workshop also featured expert panels and a series of technology talks that highlighted advanced or emerging technology in the field of structural engineering. Following the presentations, participants and attendees engaged in discussions in areas such as how these
technologies could be applied to benefit society, what the next wave of research and design could entail, and the role of the built infrastructure in designing resilient communities for the future.
This proceedings has been prepared by the workshop rapporteur as a factual summary of what occurred at the workshop. It is not intended to provide a comprehensive assessment of the current, scientific research on the topic, but provides a summary of the presentations delivered by workshop participants. The planning committee’s role was limited to planning and convening the workshop.