Sustainability and Resilience Assessment in Transportation Infrastructure: Development of a Quality Prioritization Index

Abstract

Transportation infrastructure and systems in the United States (US) are increasingly challenged by climate change, aging infrastructure, and rapid urbanization, necessitating planning approaches that integrate both long-term sustainability and short-term resilience. However, most existing frameworks have evaluated these concepts independently, limiting their effectiveness for holistic decision-making. This study proposed a quality prioritization index (QPI) framework that unified sustainability and resilience into a single quantifiable index using the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP). Through an extensive literature review, 49 resilience factors were identified and systematically categorized into four dimensions: absorptive capacity, adaptive capacity, restorative capacity, and equitable access. A structured FAHP-based survey was administered to transportation professionals across diverse geographic regions, and their opinions were analyzed using FAHP to obtain factor weights and to prioritize them. These weights were used to develop the resilience prioritization index (RPI). The RPI was subsequently integrated with an existing sustainability prioritization index (SPI) to construct the unified QPI framework. The proposed framework was demonstrated through a case study of five US Gulf of Mexico–adjacent states—Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida—and its robustness was evaluated using sensitivity analysis. The results revealed that financial preparedness, interagency coordination, strategic resource allocation, and multichannel communication were the most influential factors for transportation system resilience. The case study demonstrated notable regional variations, with Florida exhibiting the highest QPI value, indicating comparatively lower overall transportation system quality, while Alabama and Louisiana showed higher overall quality. Sensitivity analysis further revealed that QPI outcomes were highly responsive to varying sustainability and resilience weights. The QPI framework provides transportation planners and policy makers with a practical decision–support tool for identifying high-impact intervention areas and strategically allocating resources to simultaneously enhance long-term sustainability and short-term resilience.