Transportation Assets Risk and Resilience Analysis to Reduce Societal Risks to Vulnerable Populations

The growing threats associated with various natural, man-made, and technological hazards coupled with the aging transportation infrastructure have made transportation assets highly vulnerable, with significant societal and economic impacts. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) regulations require state departments of transportation (DOTs) and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) to consider resilience in the transportation planning process and include resilience considerations in asset management plans. Adherence to these federal mandates and the ability to take full advantage of the PROTECT program requires transportation agencies to have quantitative tools, methods, and measures to identify and prioritize highly critical transportation assets. In risk and resilience assessment of transportation assets, a particular attention should be made to societal risks to vulnerable populations. However, currently, there is a lack of quantitative methods and metrics for such assessment. Recognizing this important gap, the objective of this study is to reduce societal risks to vulnerable populations due to disruptions in transportation infrastructure during coastal extreme weather events. The research approach focuses on identifying and developing methods and procedures for transportation assets risk and resilience assessment that enables identification, analysis, and evaluation of risks. The methods and procedure the research team will create in this task will enable DOTs to: (1) Identify and screen assets according to their relative vulnerability to identify sources of risk and relative criticality. (2) Assess identified risks based on event probability and likelihood of asset failure given predicted exposure and sensitivity to hazards. (3) Identify and evaluate the consequences associated with events in terms of costs and performance impacts (using performance metrics that capture societal impacts and costs). By considering social equity in the identification of critical assets, it is possible to prioritize efforts and resources in a way that benefits all members of the community. For example, some transportation assets are critical for evacuation or are on the path between communities and critical facilities. The proposed approach will capture and integrate social risks and equity considerations and dependence of socially vulnerable populations on assets in determining network-level asset vulnerability and asset-level criticality. The methods created in this project will be tested in two study areas.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $112500
• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  Coastal Research and Education Actions for Transportation Equity

  Texas State University
  San Marcos, TX  United States  77666

  Texas A&M Research Foundation, College Station

  Texas A&M University
  College Station, TX  United States  77843
• Managing Organizations:

  Coastal Research and Education Actions for Transportation Equity

  Texas State University
  San Marcos, TX  United States  77666

  Texas A&M Research Foundation, College Station

  Texas A&M University
  College Station, TX  United States  77843
• Project Managers:

  Bruner, Britain

  Kulesza, Stacey

• Performing Organizations:

  Texas A&M University, College Station

  Zachry Department of Civil Engineering
  3136 TAMU
  College Station, TX  United States  77843-3136
• Principal Investigators:

  Mostafavi, Ali

• Start Date: 20230901
• Expected Completion Date: 20250228
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Asset management; Coasts; Disaster resilience; Equity; Risk analysis; Social impacts; Transportation planning; Weather and climate
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Security and Emergencies; Society; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01895249
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Coastal Research and Education Actions for Transportation Equity
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Oct 3 2023 9:47PM