Date of Graduation

5-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Civil Engineering (MSCE)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Civil Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Hernandez, Sarah V.

Committee Member

Mitra, Suman K.

Second Committee Member

Sasidharan, Lekshmi

Keywords

Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP); Criticality; Resilience

Abstract

The transportation system is especially vulnerable to natural and human-made disasters which can have effects on mobility, safety, and the economy. This thesis presents a method to rank transportation assets based on their criticality to the transportation system by uniquely gathering stakeholder input on criticality criteria weights. This serves as a typical first step in vulnerability and resilience assessments. Six criteria were used to estimate asset criticality: Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT), roadway classification, freight output, tourism output, Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI), and redundancy. Then, the criteria are combined via stakeholder input using a weighted ranking scheme called the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). The AHP produces an average ranking based on the priorities of varied experts (i.e., Analysts, Engineers, Planners, etc.) using a pairwise rating system implemented as an online survey. 30 complete surveys were collected (13.2% response rate) via a national survey conducted in July 2022. While individual rankings vary, the AHP allowed for an average weight to be determined for each criterion and applied to average all criteria into a single metric. Overall, the criteria ranked in the following order (highest to lowest priority): AADT, redundancy, freight output, roadway classification, SoVI, and tourism. Criteria weights derived from AHP are then used to estimate a weighted average criticality for each asset, and finally, all assets can be ranked by their estimated criticality. The stability of the criteria ranking was confirmed after using 15 samples, indicating the minimum number of participants required for robust and reliable results in this AHP study. Using this approach, a statewide vulnerability and/or resiliency assessment can consider multiple, unique stakeholders’ perspectives within a single, consistent criticality metric.

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