Network vulnerability analysis is recognised as an important area for research under the umbrella of transport network reliability, which has become an area of concern in transport network planning. This paper considers the development of a methodology for transport network vulnerability analysis, based on considerations of the socio-economic impacts of network degradation and seeking to determine the most critical locations in a network. Critical transport infrastructure is of significant concern. Critical locations in a network may be taken to be those that will show the most severe (socio-economic) impacts as a consequence of network failure at those locations. The methodology therefore considers vulnerability assessment in terms of a planning systems process in which the performance of network components is tested against established performance criteria, based on the notion of accessibility. Thus vulnerability analysis considers changes in the levels of accessibility provided by a degraded network. A number of standard indices of accessibility are considered, including the Hansen accessibility index, the Primerano-Taylor accessibility framework for multimodal urban networks, and the ARIA index of remoteness in rural areas. Case study applications for the regional road network of South Australia are used to illustrate the approach. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E217099.
Abstract