Interdependencies in Seismic Risk Assessment of Seaport Systems: Case Study at Largest Commercial Port in Italy

Developing a risk-informed decision-support system for earthquake early warning at a critical seaport

“…This study exclusively considers the highlighted terminals in Figure 2 used for container operations, in line with Conca et al (2020). Each port terminal represents a subsystem of the port and is composed of waterfront structures (wharves), operating cranes, and the electric power system, which is represented in this study as an electric cabin (i.e., substation).…”

“…decision-making algorithms and a seismic risk assessment methodology for port systems, within a novel harmonized framework. The DSS specifically combine/unifies: (1) the framework of Performance-Based Earthquake Early Warning, or PBEEW [18,19,20], which uses a probabilistic, engineering-based risk model to determine whether EEW alerts are triggered; (2) a simulation-based risk assessment methodology, proposed by Conca et al [21], that generates damage and loss scenarios accounting for the systemic vulnerability of the multi-component port system and its interdependent functionality; and (3) a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) algorithm [22], that builds on the engineering-oriented consequence predictions and was previously applied to a EEW DSS by Cremen and Galasso [7]. The purpose of the MCDM component is to account for the risk preferences/priorities of stakeholders across various dimensions of risk that do not necessarily need to be measured in a consistent unit.…”

“…The paper is organised as follows. Section 2 presents the case study, describing the main elements of the port and illustrating their interdependencies, starting from a brief illustration of the interdependency model that was previously presented in the literature by Conca et al [21]. We then propose an upgraded version of the Conca et al [21] model that accounts for additional port-component interdependencies.…”

“…Section 2 presents the case study, describing the main elements of the port and illustrating their interdependencies, starting from a brief illustration of the interdependency model that was previously presented in the literature by Conca et al [21]. We then propose an upgraded version of the Conca et al [21] model that accounts for additional port-component interdependencies. Section 3 describes the development and application of the EEW DSS to the port system, including sensitivity analyses for the application on some main sources of variability (i.e.…”

System-Wide Seismic Risk Assessment of Port Facilities; Application to the Port of Thessaloniki, Greece

“…In the latter case, the deformation of the quay walls, because of their sheer size and weight, may potentially put cranes out of balance, increasing the risk of their collapse. In this context, Conca et al [11] recently investigated the effect of interdependencies in a seismic risk analysis of ports. They compared the results for specific seismic scenarios obtained in the assessment of the seismic vulnerability of the seaport, considering and neglecting the interactions among its components, and they found that the modeling of the port system without considering interdependencies led to less conservative results.…”