From wildfires in California to hurricane-strength storms in the mountains of North Carolina, climate hazards are growing more intense. More frequent and costly disasters are also exposing the fragility of interconnected infrastructure networks, triggering cascading failures, economic disruption, and threats to public safety.
This February at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, elected officials, researchers, engineers, and technology leaders gathered to confront a pressing question: If climate risk is accelerating, how must infrastructure evolve?
The workshop marked the launch of Built to Endure: A Smart Guide for U.S. Cities to Build Resilient Infrastructure that Lasts. The 51-page guidebook—developed by Duke University, Bentley Systems, AECOM, the American Society of Civil Engineers, and Microsoft—offers practical, step-by-step advice and real-world case studies to help communities integrate resilience into their infrastructure systems.
The guide challenges a deeply ingrained approach to addressing risk: fixing one infrastructure project at a time. Instead, the guide treats infrastructure as a connected system, where failure in one component can ripple across sectors.
“Citywide resilience is achievable when leaders are empowered by systems thinking, data and technologies like integrated geospatial tools, AI, and digital twins, and good governance,” said Rory Linehan, Bentley’s director of infrastructure policy and a co-author of the guide.
Interconnected Risk, Complex Oversight
North Carolina illustrates the urgency. In 2024, Hurricane Helene caused an estimated $53 billion in damages and claimed more than 100 lives statewide. In 2025, Tropical Storm Chantal submerged much of downtown Chapel Hill, resulting in roughly $500 million in damages and cleanup costs. So-called hundred-year storms are arriving with alarming frequency.
In a state with the second-largest rural population in the U.S., impacts extend well beyond major metro areas. Small and mid-sized communities with limited staff and constrained capital are absorbing unplanned costs that strain long-term budgets.
Seeing the big picture is important. Even though infrastructure systems are interconnected, the institutions that manage them are not. Budgets, regulations, and operational responsibilities are divided across agencies and jurisdictions, creating a structural mismatch between how risks spread and how decisions are made. The guide argues that resilience depends on closing that gap. “Water does not stop or pause at county boundaries,” Chapel Hill Mayor Jess Anderson said at the February event. “Our watersheds connect us. When one of us floods, we all feel the impact.”
Shared data and digital tools can help communities build a common view of risk and system performance, shifting from isolated fixes to coordinated mitigation strategies before the next disruption strikes.
Technology As an Enabler
Advances in analytics, cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and processing power have expanded what cities can realistically do by improving capability and lowering cost and technical barriers. These technologies allow infrastructure to be evaluated not just as standalone assets, but as components of dynamic systems.
The guide outlines a structured approach that begins with stronger data foundations. Many municipalities already have valuable datasets across transportation, water, energy, and land use. Consolidating and standardizing that information allows departments to coordinate rather than operate in silos.
Here’s what the systemic approach can look like: Integrated geospatial environments bring infrastructure, environmental, and demographic data into shared visual models. Advanced analytics help leaders identify patterns and test scenarios. More sophisticated modeling tools can simulate how assets perform under stress, enabling better-informed capital decisions.
Crucially, the guide is aimed at small and mid-sized communities, which often have the challenge of the leanest teams and budgets but some of the biggest needs. Cloud-based platforms and modern data tools have lowered cost barriers and expanded access to capabilities once limited to large cities.
“That said, AI is not going to make water flow uphill,” says Chris Bradshaw, chief sustainability and education officer at Bentley. “Technology only works when grounded in trusted information and coordinated workflows across departments.”
From Framework To Implementation
The Built to Endure workshop moved the conversation from strategy to action. Opened by Durham Mayor Leonardo Williams, the session focused on exploring an urban resilience digital twin for Durham and Chapel Hill, neighboring college towns, aimed at mitigating the impacts of future storms like Tropical Storm Chantal.
The goal is not technology for its own sake. It is a shared foundation that allows local governments to better understand flood risk, compare interventions, and prioritize investments across jurisdictions.
Anderson emphasized the urgency: “Reactive fixes will not be enough,” the Chapel Hill mayor said. “We need systems thinking. We need smarter tools. And we need to make better decisions before the next storm arrives.”
For emergency responders, the tension is immediate. Will Potter, fire chief and emergency manager for the nearby town of Carrboro, put it plainly: “When you’re rescuing someone trapped by floodwaters in their attic, it’s difficult to tell them, ‘We are doing a lot of work to increase our resiliency.’ They want to know, ‘What are you doing to fix my problem right now?’”
That gap between long-term planning and real-time crisis is precisely what systems-based coordination aims to close.
Built to Endure makes a direct argument: Resilience is not achieved through isolated hardening projects. It comes from aligning institutions around shared data, coordinated planning, and sustained collaboration. The next phase is not more theory—it’s implementation.
Leveraging the findings from the guide, Bentley is supporting Duke University—home to the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability—in the creation of an urban resilience digital twin for the municipalities of Chapel Hill and Durham. Following the launch of Built to Endure, 40 leaders from across both municipalities came together to better understand the resilience challenges of the municipalities and to map out the first steps in the project
Learn more by downloading Built to Endure: A Smart Guide for U.S. Cities to Build Resilient Infrastructure that Lasts.
FAQ:
- What is the “Built to Endure” guide?
It is a 51-page guidebook developed by Duke University, Bentley Systems, AECOM, and Microsoft. It provides a practical, step-by-step framework for U.S. cities to build resilient infrastructure using shared data, AI, and systems-based planning.
- Why is coordination between different jurisdictions so important?
Infrastructure risks, like flooding, are interconnected and cross-jurisdictional. When cities and counties share data and coordinate their responses, they prevent “cascading failures” where a solution in one area might cause a problem in another.
- Can small or mid-sized cities afford these high-tech tools?
Absolutely. One of the guide’s main points is that advances in cloud computing and AI have significantly lowered costs. These tools are no longer exclusive to major metropolises; they are now accessible to lean teams with smaller budgets.
