Abstract
A region's transportation sector is vital to its economic and social health. Transportation systems are also influenced by climate change directly and indirectly and on a variety of spatial and temporal scales. Under a changing climate, many regions around the globe and especially in urban areas, have experienced increases in flood intensity and frequency in recent decades. Flooding can strain transportation networks in both the short- and long-term through transportation delays, infrastructure damage, and recovery, and potentially affect economies. The present article is a review of how flooding impacts transportation networks in both short- and long-term timescales and their subsequent impact on resiliency of the network. Firstly, flood effects are classified based on the connections between the type of flooding and the type of impact (either direct or indirect) on the transportation system. An analysis of the assessment methods and the transport models used to formulate flood effects on the transportation system is provided, as well as the drawbacks from the context of timescales, and recommendations for future research. The analysis indicates that the majority of the articles assess the direct and tangible impacts with focus on the resilience of the transportation network in short- and medium-term temporal scales and at smaller spatial scales. There is less emphasis on indirect, intangible flood impacts, and long-term temporal scales.
Introduction
Transportation systems are vital component to the smooth functioning of daily life and to society's standard of living (Pant et al., ). Events like floods and extreme snowfalls can have adverse impacts on infrastructure function in the form of economic disruption and loss to social systems (Bíl et al., ; Dong et al., ; Wiśniewski et al., ). Nearly all transportation modes (e.g., roads, transit, aviation, etc.) are highly dependent on the supporting network of infrastructure, and are vulnerable to extreme events such as large floods (He et al., ). During these types of events, structural integrity and the safety of the infrastructure can be compromised, which can lead to serious consequences (Esposito et al., ). These flood events effect the transportation network and its connectivity by reducing, deviating, or canceling travel for passengers, goods, and services due to roads being submerged, closed, or unsafe to travel (Douglas et al., ; Diakakis et al., ; He et al., ). Floods have direct effects on transportation networks through physical damage to infrastructure, and indirect effects that are the result of a cascade of adverse effects that can severely impact critical infrastructure (e.g., energy related infrastructure). They can lead to the failure of a city's infrastructure and economy (Pant et al., ; Serre and Heinzlef, ; Wang et al., ). Critical infrastructure like transportation systems, power grids, etc., are generally interdependent in cities. Within interdependent networks, failure of one element or node may result in failure of multiple nodes that are interconnected (Saidi et al., ; Wang et al., ). In light of climate change, cities are to expected to face an increase in devastating floods in the coming years, which are in turn compounded by increases in population size, urbanization, and impermeable surfaces (Pregnolato et al., ).
In general, flood impacts on transportation networks and infrastructure can be quantified based on physical quantities (such as area of potholes or total length of bridge rendered unpassable) and on economic consequences (in dollar values, which can also arise from travel time delays). A flood assessment may estimate the impacts/effects of floods in monetary terms because it facilitates a comparison to multiple hazards (de Moel et al., ). Physical impacts can be direct impacts if they result from direct contact between the water body and the infrastructure. While indirect impacts have no direct contact with water, damage can occur beyond the physical limits of the flood such as traffic congestion outside the flood zone. Economic impacts are generally estimated as monetary values and are either tangible or intangible; with the latter being far more difficult to compute (Hammond et al., ; Pyatkova et al., ). A diagram of flood damage classification categories and their relationships is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1
The classification of flood impacts shown in Figure 1 can be detailed as (Abdulla and Birgisson,
(A) Direct and tangible: the physical damage done to the infrastructure through direct contact of water. Can be estimated in monetary terms (for e.g., physical damage to infrastructure like roads and property).
(B) Direct and intangible: physical damage or activity interruption resulting from direct contact with flood waters but difficult to estimate in monetary terms (such as loss of network reliability).
(C) Indirect and tangible: damage done to infrastructure or other entities without any physical contact with flood waters and can be estimated in monetary terms (such as decrease in transportation demand due to traffic delays and congestion, etc.).
(D) Indirect and intangible: damage or interruption arising without physical contact with flood waters that is difficult to estimate in monetary terms (such as post flood recovery and maintenance, i.e., the time it takes for the transportation to function at pre-flood conditions and the consecutive losses).
Methods for evaluating the resilience of a transportation network to flooding can be classified into probabilistic methods, fuzzy inference methods, analytical methods, graph network theory, and empirical methods. Apart from these classifications, there are hybrid methodologies that use a combination of methods or models to form an integral part of flood risk and impact assessment.
Terms Related to Flood Impacts and Risk Assessments
A flood risk assessment is a general methodology for assessing the impact and risk of a flood to a given region. The assessment may be from an environmental perspective, an economic perspective, a social perspective, or all three. The methodology for a flood risk assessment involves determining the functions of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability arising from the flood (de Moel et al.,
i. Identification of the hazard and respective temporal and spatial scales.
ii. Assessment of the hazard, which includes (estimation of) probability, intensity and frequency of flood event, and other characteristics (water depth, scale, intensity, duration, etc.) influencing the flood.
iii. Estimation of effects and vulnerability of the system over hazard scenarios.
iv. Evaluation of risk by combining the hazard maps and the socio-economic factors (results in the exposure of floods and can estimate the potential damage).
v. Assessment of risk, which refers to evaluation and comparison of the estimated risks based on socio-economic criteria and the possible measures to be applied for mitigation.
The flood impacts noted previously provide a glimpse of the vulnerability that the transportation sector faces due to floods. With increases in urbanization and flooding in the future, the (infrastructure) networks in existing and new developments need to be developed for resiliency to future disasters. Resilience, in the context of impact assessment, is defined as the ability of a network to withstand an extreme event, adapt, and recover any loss in functionality from the event (Serre and Heinzlef,
Multiple cities are adopting the concept of resilience as part of flood risk management and mitigation (Hammond et al.,
Figure 2

Temporal scales associated with the difference stages of resilience.
Flood Impact Evaluation Methods
As indicated earlier, the general methods for conducting a flood assessment and determining resilience are probabilistic, analytical, fuzzy logic/inference, graph theory, empirical, and combined/hybrid methods. The probabilistic method uses a simple stochastic model for the flood modeling analysis and resilience assessment. In this type of model, a probabilistic function/equation is developed based on the data (historical flooding, traffic patterns etc.), which are used to analyse the performance of a system during a flood event. The depth-disruption function developed in the flooding event of the Tyne in the UK with a 1-in-100 year return period (Pregnolato et al.,
Analytical methods for resilience find application in multiple aspects of social, economic, and technical spheres. These methods divide the system into multiple components (social and economic) and analyze them quantitatively by using properties like robustness, redundancy, and resourcefulness (Abdulla and Birgisson,
Fuzzy logic/inference methods have become a practical tool in hydrologic analysis and have overcome many of the drawbacks of probabilistic and deterministic methods in recent years. Fuzzy logic can incorporate multiple scenarios into mathematical models in the form of fuzzy interference. But fuzzy logic methods suffer from the drawback of requiring multiple fuzzy rules that are dependent on the variables and can be complicated. Because of these multiple rules, accurate interaction between few interdependent variables is difficult to assess in the analysis (Aziz et al.,
Graph theory uses statistical data for flood forecasting and is applied in assessing the resilience of infrastructure (or networks). It generates systematic graphs by using the data before and after the event. In case of a regional transportation system, graph theory measures the resilience by assuming the physical layouts of a transportation network as nodes and edges with links (Fournier Gabela and Sarmiento,
Empirical modeling methods, like probabilistic methods, make use of the historical data of extreme events including surface measurements, surveys, interviews, aerial and satellite imagery, to generate flood maps, assess the flood impacts, and predict the flow. With recent advances and continuous research, this method is considered as robust and as accurate as is possible for a method based on past data. However, in empirical methods, even with the data availability, the flood flow can be under-represented due to the uncertainties involved and assumptions required for analysis (Teng et al.,
Data requirements are generally very large in flood assessment methods and thus, many methods will employ multiple tools such as remote sensing, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), combined techniques of GIS-machine learning, hydrodynamic models, traffic models integrated with flood maps, and input-output models (Douglas et al.,
The methods noted above provide an assessment of flood damage to infrastructure networks including the critical links and flood vulnerable regions. They can be applied in the decision making process for planning, design, and improving vulnerable links for increased resiliency in infrastructure networks (Teng et al.,
Criteria for Choosing a Flood Assessment Method
Flood impacts can be classified into: short-term impacts such as property damage, risk to life, and transport failure, which are impacts that occur immediately after the flood; medium-term impacts resulting from contaminated flood waters, spread of disease, and environmental pollution, which are often observed sometime after the flood; and long-term impacts that involve economic consequences in and beyond the affected regions (Hammond et al.,
Based on the analyzed literature, the authors have classified the spatial scale networks into three categories: community scale involves assessments working at a characteristic length of <5 km; urban city scale assessments include residential networks ranging from 5 to 200 km; and regional scale refers to large-scale networks having a distance in the range of 200–1,000 km and greater. For the current spatial scale ranges, they are assigned by using the type of network assessed in the region/area and by using the range of the impact. The articles where specific communities were assigned and whose total area is <2 km2 are assigned a range <5 km at a community scale. The majority of the articles assessed here are for urban networks and for this case, the articles whose network area is largest is chosen as the larger end of the range, and any article whose assessment involves highway networks are assigned the regional scale. But defining the impacts of a flood on a specific infrastructure network can be difficult due to the sheer variety in the types of damage and conditions (economic, environmental, etc.) as well as the connecting links of the infrastructure, which are strongly interdependent in urban environments (Hammond et al.,
Flood assessment methods differ based on the scale, duration, and intensity of the event. Scale can refer to either the spatial or the temporal scale. Spatial scale is defined as the extent of an area or space where the event or observation takes place and temporal scale is the total time or duration the event/observation occurs (Fischer and Schumann,
The primary objective of this article is to assess the literature for flood impact assessment methods and their applications from the perspective of what methods were used when and how often, and the temporal and spatial scales at which the applications were made. The multiple flood assessment terminology used in the current manuscript are based on the multiple articles assessed. Although there exist review articles that define and describe flood assessment methods, or flood impacts, etc., in the literature, to the authors' knowledge, there is no review that examines and connects the spatial scales, temporal scales, flood impacts, and assessment methods all together at once. By combining these criteria for this review, the authors attempt to bring insight into what gaps exist and why.
Review Methodology
Based on the terminology introduced in the previous sections, the literature review focuses on the flood assessment methods for determining the resiliency in transportation networks by using the flood impacts, i.e., direct, and indirect impacts, and the temporal and spatial scales as classification criteria. The review and analysis are carried out by using the guidelines provided in the PRISMA Protocol for Review Papers (www.prisma-statement.org/Extensions/Protocols accessed April, 2021). The articles are selected from multiple web sources like Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, and web portals of conferences and universities, and these articles are retrieved from library resources at the University of Victoria. The search is carried out by using the following keywords: flood impacts, flood temporal and spatial scale, flood disruption cost, flood traffic model, network disruption, flood risk management, flood direct and indirect impacts, flood impact scales, flood assessment methods, flood impact assessment methodology and flood classification, flood impact modeling, and flood vulnerability. The initial results obtained from the search were then refined by using the abstract, methods, and keywords, which was used as a starting point for refining the database of articles to be reviewed and cited. In the present case, book chapters were excluded, and the total number of articles selected (49) include two conference publications that were relevant to the present study. Of the 49 papers selected, only 30 papers were used for critical assessment and the remaining 19 papers were used for literature survey and for defining/describing the terminologies like spatial and temporal scales, and the assessment methods. The literature review framework is conducted in the following steps:
a) Articles are selected from multiple web sources and university library resources by using the keywords mentioned above.
b) The articles are then refined or eliminated by reading the abstracts and the conclusion. The articles which include contaminant transport, underground drainage system, underground transport systems like metro-systems are excluded as the scope is limited to only surface transport networks.
c) From the selection, conference papers and book chapters are excluded due to limited information or if the information is updated and available in other published sources.
d) From the selection, a full-scale reading and assessment of articles is conducted to determine if it contains information regarding the flood assessment methodologies.
e) A detailed analysis/synthesis of each article is carried out and the possible gaps are identified and described in later sections.
The literature is not limited to a specific part or area of the world and multiple regions that were impacted by floods especially transportation networks and critical infrastructure are considered. The majority of articles assessed in this review are published on or before 2020, with a few articles published in 2021. Apart from the abovementioned methods, there exist other multiple models like time series methods, space syntax theory, etc., which are based on the approaches mentioned above but are not discussed in detail in the present review due to limited data availability. Thus, even with the multitude article selection and multiple methodologies used herein, it is not impossible that the authors missed some of the very recent developments in publication queues regarding methodologies and models used in flood assessments.
Following this introduction, section Results provides a summary and analysis of the literature review of the impact of flooding on transportation resilience in the context of direct and indirect impacts as well the governing temporal and spatial scales. Articles are grouped and synthesized based on the methods used, identified scales, and the type of flood impact (direct vs. indirect). This information is used to identify gaps in the literature and recommendations for further research. This is followed by a discussion in section Discussions and finally the conclusions. The Supplementary Table 1 contains greater details of the literature review presented in section Results in the form of a table.
Results
To assess the literature, multiple articles were grouped and analyzed based on the type of method listed above in section Flood Impact Evaluation Methods. To provide insight into the advantages and disadvantages of each type, examples from the literature from each group are provided. This is then followed by an overall analysis and synthesis of the all the literature analyzed in this review.
Probabilistic Approach
Yin et al. (
Analytical Approach and Fuzzy Inference Methods
In the present assessment, there were only a handful of articles using analytical approaches or fuzzy logic based methods. Serre and Heinzlef (
Graph Theory
Graph theory uses statistical data for network mapping and assessment. It can be applied in flood assessments to identify the vulnerabilities of the transportation network and identify measures for resiliency of the network. Pregnolato et al. (
Hybrid Models/Methods
The majority of the articles analyzed in the current review used hybrid models i.e., the combination of traffic model, GIS, hydrodynamic model along with the other approaches stated in the section Introduction. Traffic models which use a multitude of traffic data and network parameters are widely used for flood impact assessment of urban networks. Suarez et al. (
Diakakis et al. (
In the hybrid models, Höffken et al. (
Apart from the traffic models, GIS based models are also used extensively as part of hybrid/combined models to generate flood maps and assess flood impacts. To define and estimate the indirect and intangible effects of flash floods, Pyatkova et al. (
Analyses of the Literature
The general distribution of the methods used for flood impact assessment in the literature is shown in Figure 3A. Based on the articles assessed, 59% of the articles used hybrid models (integrated traffic model, flood depth vs. traffic speed, GIS mapping, etc.), 17% of the articles used graph theory, 5% used empirical methods, 15% used probabilistic methods, 2% of the articles used analytical approaches, and 2% of the articles used fuzzy logic for the flood assessment and impacts of flooding on transportation. Excluding the cases in which hybrid models were used for data collection and to perform a flood assessment, in the present analysis, multiple articles using more than one form of approach separately, were counted more than once in Figure 3A. For instance, the article (Pourghasemi et al.,
Figure 3

Distribution of (A) methods used for flood impact assessment, (B) articles assessing flood impacts, (C) articles assessing time scales, (D) articles assessing spatial scales.
Figure 3D provides a general assessment of the spatial scale networks seen in the analysis/assessment. From the figure, it can be inferred that 77% of the studies occur at the urban city scale, which is between 5 and 200 km. The smaller community, local spatial scale appears in 13% of the assessments and only 10% are conducted at the regional scale. Based on the literature, the majority of the spatial analysis used a single type of network—either an urban road or a highway. But there are limited articles that assess the flood impacts by integrating multiple transport networks of different types and scales. In the Supplementary Table 1 based on the assessed city, it is assumed that the urban network may also include local, small-scale residential road networks. The articles that specifically mention and analyse the residential network are noted in the “Comments” column.
A general distribution of flood impacts assessed in the literature, including the time scale and the assessment method applied, is shown in Figures 4A,B. In Figure 4B, the area of the circle increases with distribution of the assessed articles.
Figure 4

(A) Distribution of articles by flood impacts based and temporal scale (B) flood assessment method mapped over impact type and temporal scale.
Discussion
Flood modeling and resilience assessment requires precise data for accurate results, and this is difficult to achieve on a large spatial scale due to the assumptions in modeling techniques, uncertainties in modeling, the coarse data available at large spatial scales, and the sparsity of data at long time scales. But in comparison, local scales such as in controlled communities, can measure accurate data of multiple variables (including precipitation, climate change variations, traffic data etc.) with high resolution; thus, generating flood modeling maps for determining resilience with greater accuracy (Zischg and Bermúdez,
Rapid urbanization and increases in population have led to uncertainties in flood risk assessment like impacts in temporal and spatial variability, model formulation, and parameter estimation, which are difficult to quantify (Ahmad and Simonovic,
Although most of the research focused on flood modeling and inundation, most of the floods that were analyzed had occurred almost a decade earlier with a few exceptions. But even with the possibility of multiple data being available, most of the articles analyzed the direct and tangible impacts and its subsequent effects on transportation and modeled future scenarios, which in turn can be used for flood resilience in urban areas.
The time scale range used for the flood duration, modeling, and analysis ranged from 60 to 200 min and the historical data leading to the flood (that is, rainfall, precipitation etc.) had a temporal range of 6 weeks before, and after the flood, with few articles using the historical data from the previous decade to predict future flood scenarios and incorporate flood resilience in the structures. Data collection through community mapping post-flood with a time span of 6 weeks provided an initial assessment of flood effects on small communities in the long-term. Although the time scale can predict the flood impacts with multiple return periods, it cannot provide an accurate description of the long-term impacts of the flood on the infrastructure network and its influence on the network resilience post flood recovery or years from the event.
In comparison to spatial scale analysis, limited research is conducted on temporal scale flood analysis. This can be attributed to the lack of data or assessment methodologies that can be applied to estimate the indirect and intangible impacts. With the repeated prediction of increases in floods in the coming years due to climate change, the need to make cities, transportation networks, and infrastructure resilient to extreme events is greater than ever. With the increase in urbanization and transportation networks expected, the vulnerable links in transportation are constantly changing, because the overall resilience of the network can be compromised. But a long-term post flood analysis with a temporal resolution ranging from months to years can potentially identify the existing vulnerabilities in the transport network. The results can be used to identify the measures to be taken to increase the resilience of the networks.
Few of the articles ignored the physical damage to the roads caused by the flow velocity and multiple articles included specific type of vehicles in their analysis due to which traffic scenario assumptions for full or partial road closure are applied. But, inclusion of a multitude of vehicle types like freight, public, and private transport, can provide a scenario where the increased traffic costs can be assessed accurately. In terms of resilience, it is not clearly specified if increasing the resilience of a few critical links can decrease the overall impact of floods on the transport network. Apart from this, they did not specify how the transport networks are impacted with change in intensity of flood and if the regional traffic models can be applied to national level analysis.
Even with multiple methods and studies, the complete evaluation and understanding of flood effects (specifically indirect and intangible) on transportation infrastructure and communities is limited due to the cascading effects and interdependence of multiple networks/infrastructures; but studies are on-going to address these. From Figure 3C, we can infer that one of the areas in which most of the articles do not focus on is the long-term effects of floods on transportation. As evident from Figure 3B, the majority of articles focus on flood modeling and direct flood impacts on transportation, and very few focusing on indirect and intangible impacts. Even the articles defining the indirect and intangible impacts do not provide any assessment and evaluation method for this impact. Also, the articles assessed have floods originating almost a decade before and few articles which assessed the same flood in recent times did not mention if the flood that occurred a decade earlier had any influence in present infrastructure shaping or resilience. Apart from these, the post flood recovery time period and its subsequent effects on the transportation network was not considered in the assessment.
One of the possible reasons why long-term temporal scales in flood assessment were not given importance thus far may be due to the general fact that in post flood recovery, most of the networks were able to function normally with little disturbances. This resulted in multiple works overlooking the possibility of flood impacts on the transportation system years or possibly decades after the flood. However, in recent years, increased perception toward transport networks and the cascading effects that arise from these events resulted in multiple researchers focusing on, and including, temporal effects in the assessments.
Even with increasing studies in flood modeling and flood resilience, the literature falls short in addressing the issues pertaining to vulnerability and resilience of transport networks. Although the primary focus is on the road transport network, transport modes like cycling, walking, etc., which form an integral part of transport network, are overlooked in the assessment. To reduce the vulnerabilities of a network, multiple short and long-term measures are adopted. In the socio-ecological context, vulnerabilities cannot be removed completely but can alter the configuration of infrastructure resources, implying a shift in space and time of vulnerabilities. One of the possible objectives to fill the gaps in the literature on flood assessments of transportation is by addressing the true cost of flooding by incorporating and/or exploring a methodology that considers the short-term, long-term, direct, indirect, tangible, and intangible impacts of floods all together. This can provide an estimate of the network and critical link damage and can be used as a base for planning or improving resilience. Additionally, other issues in the present literature are that there are not enough suggestions provided to increase the resilience of critical links to mitigate flood impacts. The few articles that suggested increasing resiliency to reduce the vulnerabilities of a network did not provide any assessment or possible discussion on the improved network. They also overlooked the changes in flood impacts and flood flow with the modified resilient network. For computing the intangible effects, incorporating data from multiple sources like insurance corporations in the probabilistic methods may provide better assessments.
Conclusions
Transportation, which is a critical infrastructure in the present economy is vulnerable to extreme events like floods. Direct flood impacts on the transportation network are an often-researched area in flood assessment criteria. In comparison, indirect and intangible flood impacts, which are defined vaguely and having no specific methodology, are difficult to estimate and are a less researched area. Flood impact assessments can be conducted using multiple methodologies like probabilistic, analytical, fuzzy logic/inference, graph theory, and empirical methods and the assessment varies by spatial and temporal scale and available data used. Even with the presence of multiple models and methods, the majority of research is concentrated on direct and tangible impact assessment by using spatial scale as a criterion. One of the aspects where the research falls short is the inclusion of temporal scale analysis (long-term specifically) in the flood modeling, and in computation and assessment of indirect and intangible impacts in monetary terms. This can be attributed to the uncertainties in modeling and coarse data availability. The inclusion of temporal scales with accurate data over the long-term in flood modeling can provide a better approach to monitor and model how the flood effects vary on road transportation over time. In addition, the inclusion of post flood recovery periods and its subsequent effects as part of indirect impacts can bridge the gap of information on the indirect impacts of floods.
Funding
This research was funded through an NSERC CREATE Grant (CREATE/511060-2018) led by Prof. Lina Kattan of the University of Calgary.
Publisher's Note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Statements
Author contributions
AR, CV, and JH contributed to conception and design of the study. AR assembled and organized the database, conducted the synthesis and analysis, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. AR, CV, JH, and SS wrote sections of the manuscript. All authors contributed to manuscript revision, read, and approved the submitted version.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Supplementary material
The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2021.732181/full#supplementary-material
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Summary
Keywords
transportation network, resiliency, flood impact assessment, temporal scales, spatial scales
Citation
Rebally A, Valeo C, He J and Saidi S (2021) Flood Impact Assessments on Transportation Networks: A Review of Methods and Associated Temporal and Spatial Scales. Front. Sustain. Cities 3:732181. doi: 10.3389/frsc.2021.732181
Received
28 June 2021
Accepted
18 August 2021
Published
21 September 2021
Volume
3 - 2021
Edited by
Zoe Li, McMaster University, Canada
Reviewed by
Michael De Coste, McMaster University, Canada; Yang Zhou, Shenzhen University, China
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© 2021 Rebally, Valeo, He and Saidi.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Caterina Valeo valeo@uvic.ca
This article was submitted to Urban Resource Management, a section of the journal Frontiers in Sustainable Cities
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