Floods can significantly impact transportation networks and prevent critical amenities such as hospital, fire department, and police station from providing services. In order to have a resilient and reliable road system, it is essential to study the vulnerability of the system under several flooding scenarios. During flood events, people requiring treatment may have to travel to hospitals or outpatient services. Therefore, it is crucial to determine the critical amenities at risk of flooding and how these services are affected during flooding.
This project provides a comprehensive analysis of flood impacts on city-scale transportation system topology and accessibility in Iowa using graph-theoretic methods, such as single-source shortest path analyses. Accessibility of a road network is evaluated on a digraph by analyzing the ability (alternative routes) to reach the amenities (hospital, fire department, and police station) under various flood return periods as well as the assessment of the difficulty (an increase of shortest distance) of reaching the amenities in the network.
Related Articles
- Alabbad, Y., Mount, J, Campbell, A. M. and Demir, I., 2021. Assessment of transportation system disruption and accessibility to critical amenities during flooding: Iowa case study. Science of The Total Environment, p.148476.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148476
Node and edge losses for each city under 100-yr and 500-yr return periods sorted by the area of each city
The affected road edges segments (left) and nodes (right) under two flood scenarios in the city center of Cedar Rapids
Distance to reach the closest three hospitals and fire departments from select node in Cedar Rapids before and after flooding
The closest amenity may “flip” to other order
