Hazard Topography: Visual Approach for Identifying Critical Failure Combinations for Infrastructure

Abstract

Infrastructure catastrophes, such as the levee failure during Hurricane Katrina and the Fukashima nuclear disaster, are often triggered by a critical combination of events. Typically, engineers evaluate the risk of failure of infrastructure for a single probabilistic combination of events. This paper focuses on a visual multihazard evaluation method to evaluate infrastructure stability and critical hazard combinations. To present this method, the authors considered the multihazard stability of a flood control earth embankment, evaluated by calculating a factor of safety (FS). Multihazard topography promotes the comparison of design/repair options with stability and two other variables that affect stability. This evaluation tool will assist engineers, owners, and regulatory agencies in the