Analysis Method for Topology Vulnerability of Transportation Network

Transportation network is one of the most important lifeline systems in socioeconomic life. However its vulnerability has not been studied much yet. Incidents may cause huge affects, if the transportation network's ability to sustain incidents is not enough. This characteristic of the system is the problem that transportation network vulnerability should study. When catastrophic incidents such as earthquake happen, one or more links of the transportation network may totally lose its (their) basic function(s). Whether road network or OD pair is still connected becomes the most important question. Therefore, it is critical to study the network's ability to sustain incidents from the point of view of topologic structure. This paper introduced the index "mincuts frequency vector" for the assessment of topology vulnerability of transportation network. The definition, characteristics and calculation method of the index were provided, with numerical examples. The index is comparable between different networks, which can reflect the different network structure characteristics. This index was also applied to identify the critical links. The numerical results indicated the rationality of the analysis method of topology vulnerability of transportation network proposed.