Role of Materials Selection in the Resilience of the Built Environment

The resilience of U.S. communities, defined as the "ability to withstand and recover rapidly from disruptive events," is directly dependent upon the ability of the built environment to maintain and support the functions upon which modern society relies. The built environment includes both buildings and infrastructure systems. Buildings are important to the extent that they provide critical services (e.g., hospitals, police stations, and mercantile/office buildings). Infrastructure systems include the physical networks, systems, and structures that make up transportation, energy, communications, water, wastewater, and other systems that support the functionality of community social institutions. As local decision makers consider resilience, choices often involve cost-benefit decisions among materials with differing initial and lifetime costs, as well as differing performance characteristics. This paper will describe the important role that materials science plays in enabling informed local decisions for resilience, as well as identify knowledge gaps, such as the service life of the materials designed for new construction or system repair.