Humanity’s social and economic development has been challenged by a range of adversities over the millennia that have caused widespread and unimaginable suffering. At the same time, these challenges have forced humans to evolve more wisely, overcoming adversity through creativity and leading to advancements in science and technology, medicine, ethics and legal systems, and socio-political systems. The dynamics of risks and opportunities caused by COVID-19, in the built, cyber, social and economic environments, present opportunities for deepening our understanding of resilient and sustainable development and infrastructure. This article reflects on five lessons that COVID-19 is teaching us about what it means to develop sustainably through the lens of transportation: (1) sustainable development planning and analytical frameworks must be comprehensive, for long-term sustainability; (2) multi-modal transportation is a superior vision for sustainable development than any one particular mode; (3) tele-activities are part of an effective infrastructure sustainability strategy; (4) economic capital is critically important to sustainable development even when it is not a critical existential threat, and, (5) effective social capital is essential in global disaster resistance and recovery, and can and must be leveraged between fast-moving and slow-moving disasters. Resilient and sustainable infrastructure will continue to be critical to addressing evolving natural and man-made hazards in the 21st Century.

Highlights Perspective on sustainability and uncertainty. Topics include sustainable ecology, policy, economics, manufacturing, communication, precautionary principle, and options theory. Covers locals to global sustainability areas.

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A critical component of transportation asset management, asset valuation has been applied historically largely to provide condition-based value assessments of transportation infrastructure. There are emerging opportunities for innovations in asset valuation methodology with applications in the MAP-21/FAST performance-based era, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Opportunities exist to incorporate a wider range of value factors to capture multiple objectives in planning, design, and rehabilitation, such as safety, mobility, economic advancement, resilience, sustainability, and equity, to reflect the growing importance of intangible assets, as well as consider more explicitly value-adding technologies in this era of smarter infrastructure and rapid technological change. The paper first examines existing methods in transportation asset valuation practice and trends in asset valuation thinking through a literature review on asset valuation methodology with transportation applications. It then outlines innovation pathways and future research directions in asset valuation that can enhance existing capabilities to capture an expanding notion of transportation infrastructure value in the 21st century. For transportation professionals with continuing interest in valuation approaches to enhance asset management, this paper offers a catalog for identifying appropriate valuation approaches. For researchers and practitioners interested in pursuing innovations to secure increasingly smart, effective, and efficient transportation systems, the paper outlines innovation pathways and research directions enabled by growing computing power and data collection capabilities in the 4IR.