Developing a context-based bounded centrality approach of street patterns in flooding: a case study of London

Floods affect an average of 21 million people worldwide each year, and their frequency is expected to increase due to climate warming, population growth, and rapid urbanization. Previous research on the robustness of transportation networks during floods has mainly used percolation theory. However, the component size of disrupted networks cannot capture the entire network's information and, more importantly, does not reflect the local reality. To address this issue, this study introduces a novel approach to context-based bounded centrality to extract the local impact of disruption. In particular, we propose embedding travel behaviour into the road network to calculate bounded centrality and develop new measures characterizing connected component size during flooding. Our analysis can identify critical road segments during floods by comparing the decreasing trend and dispersibility of component size on road networks. To demonstrate the feasibility of these approaches, a case study of the London transportation infrastructure that integrates road networks with relevant urban contexts is presented in this paper. We find that this approach is beneficial for practical risk management, helping decision-makers allocate resources effectively in space and time.