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Journal Article

Resilience of transportation infrastructure networks to road failures

Authors
/persons/resource/jonas.wassmer

Wassmer,  Jonas
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

Merz,  Bruno
External Organizations;

/persons/resource/Marwan

Marwan,  Norbert
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

External Ressource
Fulltext (public)

Wassmer_2024_013124_1_5.0165839.pdf
(Publisher version), 32MB

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There is no public supplementary material available
Citation

Wassmer, J., Merz, B., Marwan, N. (2024): Resilience of transportation infrastructure networks to road failures. - Chaos, 34, 013124.
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0165839


Cite as: https://publications.pik-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_29750
Abstract
Anthropogenic climate change drives extreme weather events, leading to significant consequences for both society and the environment. This includes damage to road infrastructure, causing disruptions in transportation, obstructing access to emergency services, and hindering humanitarian organizations after natural disasters. In this study, we develop a novel method for analyzing the impacts of natural hazards on transportation networks rooted in the gravity model of travel, offering a fresh perspective to assess the repercussions of natural hazards on transportation network stability. Applying this approach to the Ahr valley flood of 2021, we discovered that the destruction of bridges and roads caused major bottlenecks, affecting areas considerably distant from the flood’s epicenter. Furthermore, the flood-induced damage to the infrastructure also increased the response time of emergency vehicles, severely impeding the accessibility of emergency services. Our findings highlight the need for targeted road repair and reinforcement, with a focus on maintaining traffic flow for emergency responses. This research provides a new perspective that can aid in prioritizing transportation network resilience measures to reduce the economic and social costs of future extreme weather events.