Introduction

The proposed technology concerns the implementation of methods and computer programs to generate the functionality map of the building stock and urban infrastructure following a catastrophic event. This technology aims to increase the knowledge of urban physical systems and their interactions and to make individual infrastructures safer.

Technical features

Quantification of the level of functionality of urban infrastructures following catastrophic events through a finite element approach that drastically reduces computational effort while providing accurate, real-time results. The novelties introduced by the method concern the discretization of the urban area and the numerical computation technique used to quantify the functionality at each point of the urban area. The transportation network is modeled by means of one-dimensional elements that divide the entire urban area into two-dimensional elements whose nodes coincide with the intersections of the road network, while the respective edges represent the road junctions. Each two-dimensional element contains within it a certain number of buildings characterized by the parameters that define their fragility against natural events.

 

TRL: 3

Possible Applications

• Large-scale urban areas;
• Housing stock;
• Roads;
• Any type of infrastructure.

Advantages

• Effectiveness in representing the urban area
• Generalization of the method to any area and scale
• Reduction of the computational effort
• Easy reading of results and versatility in their use