Towards the adaptability of coastal resilience: Vulnerability analysis of underground gas pipeline system after hurricanes using LiDAR data

Abstract

The coastal pipeline is subjected to threats after extreme coastal weather events, however, most of the extant work fails to include pipeline risk assessment in the post-disaster coastal resilience evaluation, because the labor-intensive and time-consuming pipeline risk analysis techniques cannot be readily extended for disaster application. To address this need, this study exploited Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data for the vulnerability analysis of underground gas pipeline system after hurricanes. Specifically, compared to the prevailing work that is emphasized on the accuracy, this studied identified three requirements for disaster response applications including rapidity, applicability, and operability. Upon these requirements, we integrated LiDAR data with geospatial processing tools in ArcGIS to identify the most vulnerable location in the pipeline system aftermath of hurricanes in the coastal community. The method is implemented to cope with four facets of threats (vertical displacement, lateral deformation, flooding, and aging effect) and validated using a hurricane Sandy case study in Ocean County, New Jersey. The results showed that the proposed method not only satisfies the above three requirements in disaster response, but also aligns with the observed hurricane-induced damage patterns, and therefore deem appropriate for vulnerability analysis of underground gas pipeline system after hurricanes.