Modelling interdependencies among critical infrastructures at urban scale

Modern urban areas are transforming into sophisticated systems integrating both structures and infrastructures. This interconnection significantly increases the risk of disasters, which involves typical urban areas at different levels with structural, social, psychological and economic consequences. Therefore, improving emergency preparedness and mitigating possible disaster-induced losses of populous modern cities is becoming crucial. Critical infrastructure, e.g. the transportation, electric and water networks, can be damaged due to inherent fragility with respect to the initiating external hazard (e.g. earthquake). Buildings collapse after strong earthquakes is the typical source of malfunctioning for connected critical infrastructures. In this work, the effect of debris after structural collapse or extensive damages on related networks is studied. A new formula to evaluate the debris affected area as function of the geometric characteristics of the masonry buildings is proposed. This strategy can be implemented in a virtual city model that is recognized useful for decision makers to quantify the performance of critical infrastructures following a disaster and to plan better resilience strategies in order to limit losses and downtime