Bridge Network Seismic Risk Assessment Using ShakeMap/HAZUS with Dynamic Traffic Modeling

Abstract

Bridge infrastructures are critical nodes in a transportation network. In earthquake-prone areas, seismic performance assessment of infrastructure is essential to identify, retrofit, reconstruct, or, if necessary, demolish the infrastructure systems based on optimal decision-making processes. As one of the crucial components of the transportation network, any bridge failure would impede the post-earthquake rescue operation. Not only the failure of such high-risk critical components during an extreme event can lead to significant direct damages, but it also affects the transportation road network. The consequences of these secondary effects can easily lead to congestion and long queues if the performance of the transportation system before or after an event was not analyzed. These indirect losses can be more prominent compared to the actual damage to bridges. This paper brings about seismic performance assessment for the Cyprus transportation network from which the decision-making platform can be modeled and implemented. This study employs a seismic hazard analysis based on generated USGS ShakeMap scenarios for the risk assessment of the transportation network. Furthermore, identification of the resiliency and vulnerability of the transportation road network is carried out by utilizing the graph theory concept at the network level. Moreover, link performance measures, i.e., traffic modeling of the study region is simulated in a dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) simulation environment. Finally, for earthquake loss analysis of the bridges, the HAZUS loss estimation tool is used. The results of our investigations for three different earthquake scenarios have shown that seismic retrofitting of bridges is a cost-effective measure to reduce the structural and operational losses in the region.

Incorporating Traffic Models into Seismic Damage Analysis of Bridge Road Networks: A Case Study in Central Italy

“…Road networks are considered crucial for our society since they play a significant role in assuring the economic and social prosperity of a country. In an event of a natural disaster, road networks are regarded as critical infrastructures for their role in assuring the mobility and the accessibility of the affected region and in supporting the recovery of struck communities [1][2][3][4][5].…”