Sustainability and resilience-driven prioritization for restoring critical infrastructure in multi-hazard contexts: conflict case

The accelerated deterioration and destruction of critical infrastructure due to conflicts, climate hazards, and human interventions leads to significant social, economic, and environmental impacts, particularly in multi-hazard environments.Effective recovery strategies must incorporate resilience and sustainability metrics to ensure infrastructure systems are adaptable and capable of addressing interconnected risks.However, there is a notable gap in knowledge, as comprehensive frameworks that incorporate these metrics in a unified and actionable way are currently lacking.This study introduces a framework for prioritizing the recovery of critical infrastructure, focusing on bridge portfolios in conflict-affected and multihazard regions.The framework uses a scoring system that integrates resilience and sustainability metrics, considering structural vulnerability, service criticality, environmental impact, and long-term functionality under uncertainty driven by proximity to conflict zones and the intensity of evolving hazards.Applied to a case study of major bridges in Ukraine, the methodology demonstrates how prioritization strategies can balance competing demands from local authorities, external donors, and global development goals.Results highlight the need to balance proactive measures like preventive strengthening with reactive post-disaster restoration to optimize recovery efforts in resource-constrained settings.The study also explores the challenges of aligning recovery priorities with sustainability targets in areas with limited resources and institutional capacity.This work provides decision-makers with a scalable tool for guiding strategic investment and aligns infrastructure recovery with global objectives like the SDGs, promoting long-term resilience in conflict-and disaster-affected regions.