Abstract
The flood caused by typhoon Morakot in 2009 resulted in mass fatalities in Taiwan, prompting demands for improving coping capacities in cases of extreme climate events. The capacity improvement must involve improving awareness as well as determining and relieving socioeconomic and environmental vulnerabilities. Along with resource allocation and pre-evacuation, transportation systems play a crucial role during the disaster response and recovery. In fact, highway bridges significantly impact the accessibility of transportation networks. However, previous literature has focused on the physical vulnerability of bridges from the engineering or disaster-loss assessment perspective. This study thus examines the disaster risk of bridge failure from the vulnerability perspective. Eleven vulnerable factors are generated by impact chain and evaluated via geographic information system. The results reveal that accessibility and redundancy significantly affect vulnerability and risk. The risk maps help decision-makers understand the vulnerability and adopt appropriate strategies for reducing disaster risk.
