The highway resilience and vulnerability in Taiwan

Abstract

Owing to extreme climatic events caused by global environmental changes, the frequency and magnitude of natural hazards in Taiwan have increased in recent years, leading to deaths, injuries, and substantial damages to properties. Disruptions to critical infrastructures have impaired the ability to ensure sustainable daily operations and have caused further failures in other systems. Along with resource allocation and pre-evacuation, highway networks profoundly impact disaster response and recovery, particularly emergency disaster logistics and rescues. This study reviews the highway vulnerability assessments in Taiwan and examines the resilience of highway networks in regard to failures from the perspectives of interdependency. Analytical results demonstrate that the accessibility of emergency medical facilities plays an essential role in highway resilience in Taiwan. Moreover, the connectivity is critical for metropolitan road network resilience, whereas remote highway resilience is associated with the exposures with insufficient self-protection capacities. The proposed method can assist planners in understanding the assessment tools for highway resilience and help decision makers prioritise their adaptation strategies to improve serviceability of the road network during hazardous conditions.