Earthquake Resilience Framework for a Stormwater Pipe Infrastructure System Integrating the Best Worst Method and Dempster–Shafer Theory

Abstract

Stormwater pipe infrastructure is a fundamental requirement of any nation, but pipes can be damaged in natural disasters. Consequently, evaluating the resilience of stormwater infrastructure to earthquake damage is an essential duty for any city because it outlines the capability to recover from a disaster after the event. The resilience quantification process needs various data types from various sources, and uncertainty and partial data may be included. This study recommends a resilience assessment framework for stormwater pipe infrastructure facing earthquake hazards using Hierarchical Evidential Reasoning (HER) on the basis of the Dempster–Shafer (D-S) theory. The developed framework was implemented in the City of Regina, SK, Canada to quantify the resilience of the stormwater pipe infrastructure. First, various resilience factors were identified from the literature. Based on experts’ judgment, the weight of these factors was determined using the Best Worst Method (BWM). After that, the resilience was determined using the D–S theory. Finally, sensitivity analysis was conducted to examine the sensitivity of the factors of the recommended hierarchical stormwater infrastructure resilience model. The recommended earthquake resilience assessment model produced satisfying outcomes, which showed the condition state of resilience with the degree of uncertainty.