Comparative Qualitative and Quantitative Analyses of the Seismic Performance of Water Networks during the Maule 2010, Christchurch 2010–2011, and Tohoku 2011 Earthquakes

Abstract

Recovery of damaged water supply systems after severe earthquakes is one of the priorities to return to normal conditions. Water supply systems are intrinsically interdependent with other important lifelines such as transportation, energy, health care, and industrial sectors. These interdependencies need to be better understood by means of empirical data and analytical models. This paper is primarily of archival nature and describes empirical impact data of large earthquakes in Chile (Maule 2010), New Zealand (Christchurch 2010–2011), and Japan (Tohoku 2011) on their respective drinking water systems, and summarizes damage observations, emergency actions, and restoration processes within a resilience framework focused on metrics of robustness and rapidity. The archival nature of this article is justified by the paramount importance of systematic data collection to improve network resilience for future analytical models that aim to predict the response and recovery of water networks. Moreover, based on the collected data, the effectiveness of response actions and implemented countermeasures are evaluated relative to the observed earthquake performance of the system components. Important observations are derived to understand the main factors causing water supply system outages, the effectiveness of strategies used, and their capacity to restore the service.