Lifelines : The Resilient Infrastructure Opportunity

Infrastructure--electricity, telecommunications, roads, water, and sanitation--are central to people's lives. Without it, they cannot make a living, stay healthy, and maintain a good quality of life. Access to basic infrastructure is also a key driver of economic development. This report lays out a framework for understanding infrastructure resilience - the ability of infrastructure systems to function and meet users' needs during and after a natural hazard. It focuses on four infrastructure systems that are essential to economic activity and people's well-being: power systems, including the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity; water and sanitation--especially water utilities; transport systems--multiple modes such as road, rail, waterway, and airports, and multiple scales, including urban transit and rural access; and telecommunications, including telephone and Internet connections. From serving our most basic needs to enabling our most ambitious ventures in trade and technology, infrastructure services support our well-being and development. Reliable water, sanitation, energy, transport, and telecommunication services are universally considered to be essential for raising and maintaining people's quality of life. Yet millions of people, especially in low- and middle-income countries, are facing the consequences of unreliable electricity grids, inadequate water and sanitation systems, and overstrained transport networks. From floods and storms to earthquakes and landslides, natural hazards magnify the challenges faced by these fragile systems. This book, Lifelines: the resilient infrastructure opportunity, lays out a framework for understanding infrastructure resilience the ability of infrastructure systems to function and meet users needs during and after a natural shock and it makes an economic case for building more resilient infrastructure