Every day the dependence on transportation grows as local, regional, national, and international independence increases. Resilient transportation systems are needed to secure the highest possible level of service during disruptive events, including natural and man-made disasters. Because of limited resources, decision makers need guidance on how, when, and where to invest to improve resiliency of their networks. The research objective is to develop a method to assess and quantify resiliency, at pre-event conditions, using a fuzzy inference approach. This research expands previous work, refining key variable definitions, adjusting model interactions, and increasing transparency between metrics. This thesis presents the method and provides an illustrative example of the methodology using the Dominican Republic as a case study. The example explains how a transportation network responds to a disruptive event and how specific investments can increase resiliency of the network. The result of this research is a quantitative basis for decision makers to conduct cost-benefit analysis of resiliency increasing projects.

This thesis presents a framework for resiliency planning in state departments of transportation and other transportation agencies. The development of this framework is motivated by the need for more resilient transportation systems, due of the increasing frequency and the effect both natural and man-made catastrophic disasters have on transportation systems. The resiliency framework is based on the urban transportation planning framework and is thus applied in the broader context of general transportation planning. The resiliency framework is then applied in a preliminary review to three statewide transportation plans to show the resiliency deficiencies of those plans and how the framework may be applied to increase resiliency. These plans are selected from three different states with diversity of locations and without any preconceived notions about their incorporation of resiliency in their planning process. This preliminary review reveals a reactive nature towards investments that increase an agency’s resilience. This may be attributed to the problem of limited funding for transportation investments, as well as, limited knowledge by the transportation agencies about the return on such resiliency investments, mostly due to the uncertainty associated with the occurrence of catastrophic disasters, especially the predictability of weather-related events. However, post-disaster transportation system overhauls provide enough evidence for the need for more systemic ways of addressing resiliency in planning processes.