To read this content please select one of the options below:

Testing a criticality framework for road networks in Auckland, New Zealand

Kester Rebello (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand)
Karan Jaggi (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand)
Seosamh Costello (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand)
Daniel Blake (Department of Geological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand)
May Oo (Auckland Transport, Auckland, New Zealand)
James Hughes (Department of Climate and Resilience, Tonkin and Taylor, Tauranga, New Zealand)
Temitope Egbelakin (Massey University - Albany Campus, North Shore, Auckland, New Zealand)

International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment

ISSN: 1759-5908

Article publication date: 2 April 2019

Issue publication date: 11 April 2019

318

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to trial the application of a criticality framework for roads in an urban environment. The failure or disruption of critical transport routes can have substantial impacts on the economy and societal well-being. Determining the criticality of transport routes is thus of crucial importance for infrastructure providers, city planners and emergency management officials, as it enables appropriate resilience assessments and targeted improvement/intervention and investment strategies to be conducted.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors summarise the proposed criticality framework developed by Hughes (2016) for road networks and apply and validate the framework to an area containing 907 km of roads in the central Auckland area of New Zealand. Following an initial trial of the framework, alterations were made to the framework logic, which included the introduction of a new criticality level to account for some roads providing minimal direct societal and economic benefit and a rationalisation step to ensure that road sections always link to others with either an equal or higher criticality.

Findings

The modified framework and five-level criticality scale, when applied to the study area in central Auckland, is suitable for determining critical roads and can therefore assist with future assessments of road infrastructure resilience.

Originality/value

The framework also has the potential to be applied more widely and adapted so that it is applicable for determining the criticality of other infrastructure types and in other settings, which would allow improved assessments within and across sectors.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the support provided by Resilience to Nature’s Challenges, a National Science Challenge funded by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) in New Zealand. The authors also wish to thank Auckland Transport for their contributions and continued engagement in this research.

Citation

Rebello, K., Jaggi, K., Costello, S., Blake, D., Oo, M., Hughes, J. and Egbelakin, T. (2020), "Testing a criticality framework for road networks in Auckland, New Zealand", International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 36-51. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJDRBE-03-2018-0012

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles