Multi-level approach to assessing the resilience of road network infrastructure

A two-step method to assess the resilience of road network infrastructures is developed to support resilience capacity building. The first step exploits the DMCI (dynamic functional modelling of vulnerability and interdependency of critical infrastructure) modelling approach for transportation network characterisation. DMCI reveals the cascading effects under disruption (due to interdependencies), and ranks the road sections according to their criticality (vital node analysis - VNA). The second step uses a quantitative coping capacity index (CCI) to assess in more detail the capacity of operators and first responders to cope with an incidental event coordinating all available resources, in order to respond and rapidly recover service operations managing all the relevant interdependencies. The combination of the two levels of analysis offers more comprehensive insights on a transportation network resilience and its intended use is to guide resilience planning within capacity building programs, at both intra- and inter-organisational levels.