Assessing potential likelihood and impacts of landslides on transportation network vulnerability

Abstract

As one of the devastating natural disasters, landslide may induce significant losses of properties and lives area-wide, and generate dramatic damages to transportation network infrastructure. Accessing the impacts of landslide-induced disruptions to roadway infrastructure can be extremely difficult due to the complexity of involved impact factors and uncertainties of vulnerability related events. In this study, a data-driven approach is developed to assess landslide-induced transportation roadway network vulnerability and accessibility. The vulnerability analysis is conducted by integrating a series of static and dynamic factors to reflect the landslide likelihood and the consequences of network accessibility disruptions. The analytical hierarchy process (AHP) model was developed to assess and map the landslide likelihood. A generic vulnerability index (VI) was calculated for each roadway link in the network to identify critical links. Spatial distributions of landslide likelihood, consequences of network disruptions, and network vulnerability degrees were fused and analyzed. The roadway network on Oahu Island in Hawaii is utilized to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach with all the geo-coded information for its network vulnerability analysis induced by area-wide landslides. Specifically, the study area was classified into five categories of landslide likelihood: very high, high, moderate, low, and stable. About 34% of the study area was assigned as the high or very high categories. The results of network vulnerability analyses highlighted the importance of three highway segments tunnel through the Ko‘olau Range from leeward to windward, connecting Honolulu to the windward coast including the Pali highway segment, Likelike highway segment, and Interstate H-3 highway segment. The proposed network vulnerability analysis method provides a new perspective to examine the vulnerability and accessibility of the roadway network impacted by landslides.