Vulnerability of road transportation networks under natural hazards: A bibliometric analysis and review

Abstract

The vulnerability of the road transportation networks' infrastructures worldwide that can adversely be affected by the extreme weather conditions needs comprehensive assessment for reliable performance, mitigating the traffic hindrance and risks of accidents. Despite many efforts a clear understanding of the vulnerability of road transportation networks remains deficient. Based on this fact, this work bibliometrically analyzed the vulnerability of road transportation networks using 635 state-of-the-art articles published (Scopus database) during 1975–2020. The main purpose was to examine all-inclusively the evolution of diverse scientific studies in this field to ascertain the future research trends and benefits. In addition, the recent research progress and future drifts concerning the vulnerability of transportation networks were evaluated based on the published papers contributed by authors from various nations and co-incidences of authors’ keywords. The proposed bibliometric analyses disclosed that the publications related to the vulnerability in transportation networks have significantly been increased since 2013. Approximately 70.6% countries showed research collaborations or partnership with at least one country. The USA and China presented a significant increase in the research trends in this area. It was found that the vulnerability studies have evolved significantly to include multi-dimensional evaluations, optimization approaches, multi-objective algorithm in order to minimize the disaster impacts and a GIS-based framework to create automated solution on the impacts of transportation network due to natural disasters. There has been a gradual acceptance that the benefit-cost ratios associated with vulnerability reduction are greatly favorable for the mitigation of the disaster risk to make economic sense.