Microeconomic Decision-Making

...In the United States, decisions about infrastructure projects usually are made in private and/or public boardrooms and generally are not focused on resilience.

...Engineers and architects have key roles to play both in consulting the client on innovations and in producing plans and specifications.

...if a designer works in close cooperation with the owner the goal of resilience can be achieved, to at least some degree, by advocating for it during the process. The resilience will be built-in, therefore, through the microeconomic decisions that are made in the thousands of projects that are projected to be built – at a total cost of almost $1 trillion – to expand, maintain, and improve the nation’s infrastructure over the next five years.

...To that end, Lieutenant Colonel Steve Hart of the U.S. Military Academy's Civil and Mechanical Engineering Department developed not only a course of study but also the first, in 2010, of what is intended to be an annual symposium for his students (and those from other universities) to explore Critical Infrastructure Resilience and Protection. One of the principal lessons learned from his efforts this past year is that there are very few engineering departments currently focused on the resilience of Critical Infrastructure.

...That may change in the not-too-distant future, though, thanks in large part to Colonel Hart's efforts. Fortunately, there is a growing awareness that: (1) The roadmap to achieving resilience is paved with many microeconomic decisions; and (2) Both education and career development are critical to the long-term process of building resilience – primarily by following the ASCE Guidelines mentioned earlier.

To view the entire writing - http://www.domesticpreparedness.com/Infrastructure/CIP-R/Leadership_and_Stewardship_in_Microeconomic_Decision-Making/