Impact of structural damage on network accessibility following a disaster : the case of the seismically damaged Port au Prince urban road network

The catastrophic seismic event that struck Haiti in January 2010 led to an unprecedented effort in collecting and providing geographical information in support of the humanitarian aid. Although most of the compiled datasets and generated maps try to provide specific and detailed information on the location of damage and road interruptions, little or no information was available in terms of accessibility of the urban space. Here we try to offer an alternative method in defining the urban aftermath damage, coupling graph theory and GIS-based spatial analysis to assess how the urban space accessibility decreases when the road network is damaged. We believe there could be important lessons to be learnt from this exercise in the event of the physical failure of critical elements of European infrastructure.