Risk Management of Rural Road Networks Exposed to Natural Hazards: Integrating Social Vulnerability and Critical Infrastructure Access in Decision-Making

Marta Contreras, Alondra Chamorro (), Nikole Guerrero, Carolina Martínez, Tomás Echaveguren, Eduardo Allen and Nicolás C. Bronfman
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Marta Contreras: Research Center for Integrated Disaster Risk Management (CIGIDEN), ANID/FONDAP/1523A0009, Santiago 7820436, Chile
Alondra Chamorro: Research Center for Integrated Disaster Risk Management (CIGIDEN), ANID/FONDAP/1523A0009, Santiago 7820436, Chile
Nikole Guerrero: Research Center for Integrated Disaster Risk Management (CIGIDEN), ANID/FONDAP/1523A0009, Santiago 7820436, Chile
Carolina Martínez: Research Center for Integrated Disaster Risk Management (CIGIDEN), ANID/FONDAP/1523A0009, Santiago 7820436, Chile
Tomás Echaveguren: Research Center for Integrated Disaster Risk Management (CIGIDEN), ANID/FONDAP/1523A0009, Santiago 7820436, Chile
Eduardo Allen: Research Center for Integrated Disaster Risk Management (CIGIDEN), ANID/FONDAP/1523A0009, Santiago 7820436, Chile
Nicolás C. Bronfman: Research Center for Integrated Disaster Risk Management (CIGIDEN), ANID/FONDAP/1523A0009, Santiago 7820436, Chile

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 15, 1-23

Abstract: Road networks are essential for access, resource distribution, and population evacuation during natural events. These challenges are pronounced in rural areas, where network redundancy is limited and communities may have social disparities. While traditional risk management systems often focus on the physical consequences of hazard events alone, specialized literature increasingly suggests the development of a more comprehensive approach for risk assessment, where not only physical aspects associated with infrastructure, such as damage level or disruptions, but also the social and economic attributes of the affected population are considered. Consequently, this paper proposes a Vulnerability Access Index (VAI) to support road network decision-making that integrates the social vulnerability of rural communities exposed to natural events, their accessibility to nearby critical infrastructure, and physical risk. The research methodology considers (i) the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) calculation based on socioeconomic variables, (ii) Importance Index estimation (I imp ) to evaluate access to critical infrastructure, (iii) VAI calculation combining SVI and I imp , and (iv) application to a case study in the influence area of the Villarrica volcano in southern Chile. The results show that when incorporating social variables and accessibility, infrastructure criticality varies significantly compared to the infrastructure criticality assessment based solely on physical risk, modifying the decision-making regarding road infrastructure robustness and resilience improvements.

Keywords: social vulnerability; critical infrastructure; road network; access index; natural hazard (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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