Holistic Approach for Assessing the Vulnerability of Buried Pipelines to Earthquake Loads

Emergency preparedness agencies are promoting community resiliency in the face of disasters through community involvement and planning. One aspect of such programs is the incorporation of disaster planning into the community normal operational activities. This paper presents a framework for a screening tool developed using the analytical hierarchy process and commonly used statistical tools to obtain a first-order estimate of the relative resilience of buried lifeline networks to earthquake loads. It is envisioned that the results will be incorporated into a municipality or utility prioritization scheme for the rehabilitation/replacement of its buried assets, as well as provide a basis for emergency response teams to prioritize their efforts following an earthquake event. A preliminary verification of the proposed model was conducted by comparing predictions with data collected during the aftermath of the Loma Prieta and Kobe earthquakes. It was shown that the proposed holistic approach is a viable method for tackling this complex, multivariable problem. The proposed model can be codified to run under standard geographical information system platforms, enabling access to existing electronic databases.