Breaking the Resilience Barriers: Policies, Standards, and Practice in the U.S. Infrastructure Landscape
The United States has made significant progress in advancing resilience through infrastructure investments, performance-based engineering, updated standards, and national initiatives. Yet despite growing awareness of infrastructure risks and the increasing frequency of disruptive events, resilience remains difficult to implement consistently at scale.
This panel brings together leaders from NIST, ASCE, and the National Institute of Building Sciences to examine the barriers that continue to hinder resilience adoption across the infrastructure sector. The discussion will explore how resilience is measured, valued, financed, and translated into practice; the challenges of demonstrating the benefits of resilience investments; and the implications for insurability, long-term infrastructure performance, and capital allocation.
Drawing on U.S. experience—including the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, national resilience initiatives, building performance frameworks, and infrastructure standards—the panel will also explore international examples and opportunities for collaboration. The objective is to identify practical pathways for moving resilience from aspiration to implementation and from technical concept to investment reality.
Panelists
Maria Lehman, ASCE, Univ. of Buffalo, USA
George Guszcza, National Institute of Building Sciences, USA
Sissy Nikolaou, National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA
Plenary Address by George Guszcza, NIBS | 18:30-18:45
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