Resilience of Coastal Transportation Networks Faced with Extreme Climatic Events

Abstract

Infrastructure systems, especially those including civil infrastructure (e.g., transportation networks, water distribution systems, and power transmission lines) are inarguably critical to the everyday functions of society. The ability of an infrastructure system to withstand, to adapt to, and to recover rapidly from extreme events is paramount in the ability to serve users. The effects of historical climatic events have resulted in a growing concern for preparedness against such hazards, specifically in coastal communities. The continuing function of society and its economy relies heavily on an accessible transportation network. Roads, highways, railroads, ports, and airports make up a complex infrastructure vital for the travel of goods and people. Extreme events of climatic source that disturb the transportation network affect all aspects of daily life, both directly and indirectly. To estimate the resilience of coastal transportation networks to extreme events, topological graph properties are measured as the nodes and links of a network are removed to simulate failures and closures due to extreme climatic events. The transportation network of the New York City metropolitan area, the most populous and crucial urban area in the United States, was chosen as a case study. The presented approach provides a tool for transportation agencies to identify the most critical sections of the network and to establish pre-event hazard mitigation strategies or to plan for postevent recovery actions with the goal of increasing the resiliency and decreasing the down time of transportation networks.