Project Summary
Quantifying the resilience of transportation networks to natural hazards requires thoroughly investigating the performance of its components, such as roadways, bridges, and the losses resulting from damage to these components. In dense urban areas, the losses due to physical damages alone comprise a small fraction of the overall losses. Traffic disruptions and the resulting mobility reductions are far more significant. The primary objective of this research is to quantify the resilience of Los Angeles’ transportation network and identify network components that are most critical to improving its resiliency and evacuation capacity. For this purpose, probabilistic damage frequencies for every roadway segment and bridge structure within Los Angeles County will be established for earthquake and tsunami hazards with specific consideration to modeling uncertainties. Monte Carlo simulations that couple these annual damage frequencies with a transportation model of the region will be performed. Subsequently, based on the outcome of these simulations, retrofit/rehabilitation priority rankings that maximize the resilience and evacuation throughput of the Los Angeles transportation network will be devised for various assumed budget levels.
