Analyzing Inundation Impacts on Transportation Network - The Case Study of Vadodara City

Abstract

Inundation and related problems have become more uncontrollable all over the world leading to unexpected deaths, severe damage to infrastructure, and epidemics like conditions every year. A great number of cities in India have reported a series of heavy hazardous precipitation events during past few years. The immediate effects observed of floods specifically in urban areas are on the transportation network leading to its disruption. Most of the studies on transportation susceptibility including immediate and shortly after inundation events consider topographic properties along with supply and demand side of transportation system to access the disruption caused. In response to such events, this study aims to provide framework to access the susceptibility to urban road network due to inundation events. An integrated framework between meteorological information, land use functions, and hydrodynamic model simulated in HEC-RAS with rainfall event with 1-in-100 year is used for the analysis of the impacts being generated on the transportation infrastructure by such event. A critical map and index is developed to identify affected road length susceptible to flood. It has been observed that more than 40 percent of road length across the network has been affected by such unpredictable events. Also, there is a significant decrease in average speed of movement as compared to average normal speed observed on the normal days.