Zhang, Yuerong; (2021) Towards a network perspective of transit resilience: an intra-urban study of Greater London. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

Abstract

In recent years, the popularity of “resilience” has exploded in both academic and policy discourse. However, current transit resilience research only focuses on infrastructure resilience, giving little consideration to its interaction with passengers. Moreover, even for transit infrastructure resilience, there is no comprehensive framework for assessing resilience to reflect its scale-sensitive attributes. Therefore, to make cities and transit systems move from a vulnerable state to a more resilient one, this thesis seeks to advance our understanding of transit resilience performance from macro, meso and micro levels, focusing on the interactions between infrastructure and passengers. Additionally, this research is motivated by the need to bridge the theoretical gap between the transport network and complex network science disciplines. This research draws on a multiple-level framework to investigate stations' roles in maintaining London transit resilience at macro, meso and micro levels from a network perspective. At macro level, this research examines the overall transit resilience performance by using percolation modelling and fault tolerance. At meso level, resilience as a sub-network feature is examined by unravelling the travel structure and identifying the stations' roles in maintaining resilience within and beyond metropolitan levels through community detection and Z-P scores. This research evaluates each station’s role in maintaining resilience based on resilience and criticality matrix at micro level. In addition, this research seeks to answer for whom we should build resilience by including the transport equity analysis. In line with the conceptual framework, this research develops an R package1, ResilienceNet, which provides a reproducible and accessible tool to examine transit resilience at multiple levels. Three research findings can be derived from this research. First, the London transit is resilient against random disruption but relatively vulnerable to centrality-based attacks. The conventional network approach would understate or overstate the resilience performance at the macro level. Second, the empirical results justify the necessity to include an evaluation of resilience at the meso level, as the role of stations for ensuring resilience varies differently within and beyond sub-city communities. Third, at the micro-level, this research identifies 25 stations and some vulnerable groups, such as young and low-income groups, which are more likely to be affected by transit disruptions and need more attention. The results derived through analysis could be used to facilitate transport and urban planning at multiple levels, thus moving cities and transit systems from a vulnerable to a more resilient state.

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