Decision-oriented resilience for sustainable infrastructure across the life cycle

Decision-oriented resilience for sustainable infrastructure across the life cycle | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Decision-oriented resilience for sustainable infrastructure across the life cycle Stergios-Aristoteles Mitoulis, Marco Domaneschi, Nadiia Kopiika, and 4 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8758374/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Sustainability and resilience expectations for infrastructure are escalating faster than the regulatory and design frameworks meant to deliver them. This mismatch is most acute for ageing critical infrastructure, where deterioration advances more rapidly than standards can be revised, validated, and implemented. Despite growing recognition of this challenge, decision-making on infrastructure adaptation remains fragmented: life cycle environmental impacts, economic costs, structural performance, and service continuity are rarely assessed in an integrated way. Here, we develop a multi-criteria decision-making methodology that unifies these dimensions to evaluate retrofit and adaptation strategies for ageing infrastructure, demonstrated through a landmark bridge case study. Our results show that strategies prioritising system-level transformation with minimal structural intervention consistently outperform conventional approaches, achieving superior trade-offs across resilience, cost, environmental impact, and service life extension. These findings provide actionable evidence for extending the lifespan of ageing infrastructure while reducing environmental footprints and resource intensity, and offer a scalable pathway for aligning infrastructure adaptation with sustainability and resilience objectives under real-world constraints. Earth and environmental sciences/Natural hazards Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files SupplementaryResilienceforsustainableadaptation.docx Decision-oriented resilience for sustainable infrastructure across the life cycle Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8758374","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":592671710,"identity":"db530dac-57a5-4f29-98b3-559a408b7a81","order_by":0,"name":"Stergios-Aristoteles 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