Road Network Vulnerability: A Review of the Literature

Road networks and transportation infrastructures are essential to assure accessibility and social and economic development of a country. For this reason it is necessary to protect them from calamitous events. The vulnerability assessment of a road network is one of the three fundamental steps towards a comprehensive definition of risk. The concept of vulnerability has not yet been unambiguously defined and it is possible to find different approaches and methodologies applied in studying it. The paper develops a careful analysis of previous researches concerning road network vulnerability and it shows how accessibility indicators can be used to assess road network vulnerability. Furthermore, these indicators can be useful to road administrators in deciding the priority of interventions and limiting the consequences of link or network section failures due to natural or anthropic hazards.