A Shannon Entropy Approach for Quantitative Evaluation of Resilience and Sustainability for Transport Infrastructures

This paper presents an original methodology for quantitative evaluation of resilience and sustainability in transport infrastructure projects, specifically focusing on highways and earthworks construction. The methodology employs Shannon entropy theory to assess five key resilience criteria: technical, socio-economic, environmental, climate change adaptation, and strategic aspects. A probabilistic approach is used to calculate resilience indices, enabling comparative analysis between traditional and innovative construction technologies. According to this approach, in resilience studies conducted for a new project it is recommended to investigate at least two alternatives, a classical/standard one in parallel with the new proposed one. The resilience value obtained for each investigated project is compared with the resilience of an ideal project, so that to be possible decide which alternative is more near the ideal solution and thus may better satisfy, the designed / desired resilience requirements This proposed methodology is validated through a case study of the Tarhuna-Beni Walid road project in Libya, where dry compaction technology was implemented to address water scarcity challenges. Results demonstrate that the proposed approach achieved a resilience index of 2.16 bits compared to 3.98 bits for conventional methods, indicating superior resilience performance. The methodology provides practitioners with a quantitative framework for infrastructure decision-making and risk assessment.