*** 9633386 Shinosuka Recent earthquakes have demonstrated that urban infrastructure failures in general and highway systems failures in particular can cause significant economic loss. This project examines the effect of earthquakes on urban highway infrastructure productivity by making use of a multidisciplinary and integrative approach, combining expertise in civil engineering, urban planning, economics, and public policy. Emphasis will be placed on filling the gap that currently exists between traditional engineering and socio-economic and policy issues studies. The objective of this project is to develop an integrated framework and innovative methodologies for evaluating the economic consequences of urban seismic risk and risk reduction from the perspective of infrastructure systems performance and productivity. The results can contribute to the long-term goal of optimally enhancing the productivity of urban highway transportation infrastructure exposed to significant seismic hazard. While the methodologies developed will be applicable to urban areas in general, a prototyping exercise will refine the general framework in the case of highway transportation systems in Los Angeles. The prototype will provide a foundation for evaluating the general framework in which it will be embedded. In addition, the framework and results from the prototyping exercise will guide the development of experimental civil infrastructure curricula at the University of Southern California intended to serve as a model for multidisciplinary education and training of students.***
