The Measurement of Mobility-Based Accessibility—The Impact of Floods on Trips of Various Length and Motivation

Abstract

The main purpose of this article was to develop a method of researching accessibility in the event of a flood through the application of measurement based on mobility. In the course of the research, it has been proven that changes in mobility (and the related travel speed) are too significant to be ignored when studying accessibility in unusual circumstances. The vast majority of existing accessibility studies rely primarily on speed models, which – in the event of a flood – do not indicate the external effects of the natural disaster. On the basis of the conducted research it has been stated that the occurrence of a flood has a significant impact on changes in the spatial distribution of traffic and its related speeds. Such changes vary depending on the particular means of transport. With the most commonly applied methods of measuring accessibility, which are customarily based on speed models, the changes we observed would not be recorded. The application of mobility-based research in the analyses of accessibility – especially in the event of a flood – indicates the disaster’s influence on the capacity of the road network, and thus, it allows for more effective flood-risk management. Furthermore, this article also demonstrates the possibility of applying source materials available in most member states of the EU, i.e., flood-risk maps and digital terrain models (NMPT), for the purposes of analysing and identifying road section closures within the transport network after the occurrence of a flood.