Vulnerability Identification and Cascading Failure Spatiotemporal Patterns on Road Network under the Rainstorm Disaster

Road vulnerability is crucial for enhancing the robustness of urban road networks and urban resilience. In medium or large cities, road failures in the face of unexpected events, such as heavy rainfall, can affect regional traffic efficiency and operational stability, which can cause high economic losses in severe cases. Conventional studies of road cascading failures under unexpected events focus on dynamic traffic flow, but the significant drop in traffic flow caused by urban flooding does not accurately reflect road load changes. Meanwhile, limited studies analyze the spatiotemporal pattern of cascading failure of urban road networks under real rainstorms and the correlation of this pattern with road vulnerability. In this study, road vulnerability is calculated using a network’s global efficiency measures to identify locations of high and low road vulnerability. Using the between centrality as a measure of road load, the spatiotemporal patterns of road network cascading failure during a real rainstorm are analyzed. The spatial association between road network vulnerability and cascading failure is then investigated. It has been determined that 90.09% of the roads in Zhengzhou city have a vulnerability of less than one, indicating a substantial degree of spatial heterogeneity. The vulnerability of roads adjacent to the city ring roads and city center is often lower, which has a significant impact on the global network’s efficiency. In contrast, road vulnerability is greater in areas located on the urban periphery, which has little effect on the global network’s efficiency. Five hot spots and three cold spots of road vulnerability are identified by using spatial autocorrelation analysis. The cascading failure of a road network exhibits varied associational characteristics in distinct clusters of road vulnerability. Road cascading failure has a very minor influence on the network in hot spots but is more likely to cause widespread traffic congestion or disruption in cold spots. These findings can help stakeholders adopt more targeted policies and strategies in urban planning and disaster emergency management to build more resilient cities and promote sustainable urban development