Towards resilient roads to storm-surge flooding: case study of Bangladesh

Abstract

Operating roads are critical during emergency operations at a disaster area. Prolonged inundation of pavements accelerates rapid deterioration of pavements and increases maintenance cost. The upgrade of vulnerable pavements with a raised subgrade and gabion-walls is proposed as the mean to increase the resiliency of strategic roads vital during the emergency attention in the aftermath of a cyclone. Hence, optimal pavement management can be used to allocate upgrade and maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R) operations to reduce the damage and mitigate the geophysical risk and community vulnerability before the disaster even occurs. A case study is presented for regional highways, arterial and collector roads of Barguna district in Bangladesh that is frequently affected by cyclones and storm surges. The geo-physical risk and vulnerability (GEOPHRIV) index of each road segments is estimated by integrating the geo-physical risk; community, structure and infrastructure vulnerabilities; and damage indices. Dynamic linear programming is applied to optimize M&R strategies and the conversion of strategic roads into resilient perpetual pavements. The same budget required to optimize roads condition is also used to guide the conversion of roads into perpetual pavements, therefore increasing the overall network resiliency. As expected, the results show that most of the annual budget is equally expended into the conversion or the resurfacing of pavements. The decision making approach herein proposed is very useful to roads agencies around the world, because it provides them with the ability to increase the resiliency of their strategic network ex-ante any flooding disaster.

Measurement of city road network resilience in hazardous flood events

“…The resilience of a transportation network is its ability to absorb any disruption caused within a short duration due to a minor or extreme event to provide complete serviceability (Ortiz et al , 2009). Few studies are carried out to understand the community’s resilience based on road infrastructure (Mallick et al , 2017; Amin et al , 2020; Tachaudomdach et al , 2021). The previous literature related to the road network resilience under disastrous conditions is limited and previous studies concentrated on post disaster physical impacts on road network infrastructure (Li and Teo, 2019; Li et al , 2020; Rezapour et al , 2021).…”

“…The previous literature related to the road network resilience under disastrous conditions is limited and previous studies concentrated on post disaster physical impacts on road network infrastructure (Li and Teo, 2019; Li et al , 2020; Rezapour et al , 2021). The literature on the road network resilience index focused on the physical road condition and road quality under flood conditions (Amin et al , 2020). However, studies are confined to the physical properties of the road and are limited to serviceability and functional aspects.…”

An assessment of priorities in handling climate change impacts on infrastructures

“…Damages by floods or by extreme heat, which melts the asphalt and degrades roads Amin 29 Bridges Bridges may be damaged or become unstable due to floods or gale-force winds during cyclones Argyroudis 25 Water supplies Droughts may result in the depletion of water supplies Pokhrel 30 Waste Management Systems Increased temperatures may accelerate waste degradation and release more greenhouse gases Wang 31 Irrigation Diminished water supplies may result in the need for reduced irrigation as a water conservation strategy Sánchez-Blanco 32 Power generation Extreme events may damage power links Production of hydropower may be curbed due to the limited availability of water in the summer months Thacker 33 The literature analysis aimed to explore the impacts of CC on infrastructure across various contexts, such as human settlements, transportation, and coastal areas, among others, rather than focusing solely on a single sector, as is often the case in many studies. Additionally, it sought to identify the extent of coverage of the topic in peer-reviewed work.…”

Evaluation of Structural Performance of Pavements under Extreme Events: Flooding and Heatwave Case Studies

“…These studies have investigated the impact of flooding on pavement performance by simulating the effects of extreme precipitation on the International Roughness Index (IRI) ( 20 , 21 ). Maintenance and rehabilitation (M&R) approaches, such as raising the subgrade and using gabion walls were proposed to reduce the direct impacts of flooding and improve the recovery rate afterward ( 22 ). The focus on the functional performance is understandable because the priority after the occurrence of a disaster is to restore the functionality of the pavement to an acceptable level.…”