Modeling the resilience of interdependent networks: The role of function dependency in metro and bus systems

Owing to the pervasive interdependency among networks and the great threat of various disasters, one of the most challenging issues is the resilience evaluation of interdependent networks. Existing studies have been conducted to analyze interdependent network resilience addressing unidirectional dependency, which triggers and propagates network failures. The loss and recovery of network functionality are complicated and important under such interdependency. Ignoring the interdependency nature of different networks would lead to incomplete or incorrect results in their resilience assessment. This paper developed a resilience assessment model for interdependent transit networks under failures. Taking the interdependency relations, network topology, flow characteristics, and demand distribution into account, the proposed methodology explicitly quantifies the impacts of varying network interdependency on the resilience of interdependent networks. The approach was applied to the interdependent metro and bus networks of Xi'an, China. Results show the resilience of interdependent networks is greatly affected by node degree heterogeneity in topology. The higher the heterogeneity of interdependent nodes, the larger the network resilience becomes. The bidirectional function dependency among networks demonstrates dominant effects on the resilience of interdependent networks if one network is disrupted. If interdependent networks have homogeneous function, the resilience of the networks would be significantly improved with the increase in interdependency. The degree of flow matching between both networks plays a particularly important role in network resilience enhancement. Findings of this study would provide practical implications for the design and planning of interdependent infrastructure systems under disasters.

Automated summary

This study investigates the resilience evaluation of interdependent networks. A model is developed to quantify the impacts of network interdependency on the resilience of interdependent transit networks, considering interdependency relations, network topology, flow characteristics, and demand distribution. The model is applied to the metro and bus networks of Xi'an, China. Results show that node degree heterogeneity in topology, bidirectional function dependency among networks, and flow matching between networks are important factors influencing network resilience.