Critical infrastructures, mobility and risks within the Metropolitan District of Quito (Ecuador)

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Critical infrastructures, mobility and risks within the Metropolitan District of Quito (Ecuador)

Florent Demoraes

To cite this version:

Florent Demoraes. Critical infrastructures, mobility and risks within the Metropolitan District of

Quito (Ecuador). Gondard Pierre (ed.). 30 ans en Équateur - Actes des Séminaires et ateliers scien-

tifiques, IRD, pp.164-166, 2007. �halshs-00102977�

Proceedings of the seminars and workshops organised for the 30 ^th anniversary of the presence of IRD in Ecuador

Quito, Ecuador - October 2004 – pp. 164-166 F. Demoraes

Critical infrastructures, mobility and risks within the Metropolitan District of Quito (Ecuador)

Florent DEMORAES ¹

Key words: daily mobility, urban transport, lifelines and critical infrastructures, vulnerability, accessibility, risks, urban preventive planning, Quito.

The objective of my PhD. research ² (defended in 2004) was to suggest a reflection on the risks the Metropolitan District of Quito is exposed to, considering more specifically road network vulnerability and accessibility issues. The analysis was conducted within the framework of a research programme called “Information System and Risks in the Metropolitan District of Quito” carried out between 1999 and 2004 by the French Development Research Institute (IRD) in partnership with the Municipality of Quito.

We argued that in order to prevent efficiently the risks a city is exposed to, it is indispensable to first pinpoint the critical infrastructures and lifelines on which the mobility relies. Indeed, the loss of their serviceability is likely to cause a severe disruption within the communications and is likely to generate accessibility issues. The situation is even worse if the critical transportation infrastructures and lifelines are vulnerable and very troublesome if the resulting accessibility issues affects strategic urban facilities (regional hospitals, important educational institutions, central administrations, essential facilities for urban logistics, and vital firms for the local economy…).

The research took advantage of a pre-existing location-based dataset which has been managed since the end of the 80’s by the Municipal Metropolitan Studies Bureau in collaboration with the ORSTOM (current IRD). At the beginning, this database ³ was above all meant for land planning and daily urban management. One of my first missions was to update and enhance this database in particular in the ambit of mobility. The objective was to convert it into an operative tool intended to support the stakeholders’ decisions for preventive planning and crisis management. This evolution was essential as the risk management became a responsibility granted to the Municipality after the eruption of the Pichincha volcano in October 1999.

The first step was to identify and locate the critical transportation infrastructures and lifelines. It implies beforehand an analysis of the daily interchanges and movements and also a detailed diagnosis of the transportation system. The second step was to assess the vulnerabilities of these critical transportation infrastructures, as vulnerabilities predispose them to damages and failures. Six forms of vulnerability, determined within the frame of the programme, were considered: (1) intrinsic vulnerability, (2) dependence, (3) exposure to hazards and likeliness to damages, (4) control capacity, (5) alternatives and, (6) crisis preparedness. The third step was to evaluate the risks the district is exposed to, taking into account the expected accessibility issues attributable to the loss of serviceability of the critical roads. To do so, several scenarios with their respective predictable spatial outcomes were proposed.

Partly inspired from previous risk assessment methods designed by geographers from the University of Savoy in the cities of Nice and Annecy, this research elaborated in a way such as to be

1 EDYTEM Lab – (UMR 5204 CNRS) – University of Savoy – Email: [email protected]

2 DEMORAES F. (2004). - Mobilité, enjeux et risques dans le District Métropolitain de Quito, Laboratoire EDYTEM – UMR 5204 - Université de Savoie, 587p.

3 This database was managed with a freeware named “SavGIS” which is designed and developed by Marc Souris, computer scientist (IRD).

Proceedings of the seminars and workshops organised for the 30 ^th anniversary of the presence of IRD in Ecuador

Quito, Ecuador - October 2004 – pp. 164-166 F. Demoraes

reproducible, provides some ways to mitigate vulnerabilities and suggests some orientations toward an efficient crisis management.

Methodological framework for assessing territorial risks through the prism of road network vulnerability and accessibility issues

1 – Urban system mobility analysis

- Daily mobility and journeys assessment regarding the situation of the city in relation with the other cities and regarding the distribution of the activities within the city.

- Transportation system analysis (decision makers, network, supply).

2 – Identification of critical infrastructures and lifelines on which the mobility relies

- Prioritisation and categorisation of the interchanges and the physical infrastructures they rely on.

- Identification and mapping of the critical transportation infrastructures and lifelines.

3 – Analysis of the critical transportation infrastructures and lifelines vulnerabilities

- Assessment of the critical elements weaknesses and their resilience (intrinsic vulnerability, dependence, exposure to hazards and likeliness to damages, control capacity, alternatives and, crisis preparedness).

- Prioritisation of the level of the critical elements vulnerabilities and mapping.

4 – Risk assessment

- Delimitation of the “road-basins” and assessment of their usual accessibility.

- Assessment of the expected accessibility reductions due to the loss of serviceability of the critical transportation infrastructures among the most vulnerable ones.

- Mapping of the configurations that lead to risks (key urban facilities located in the areas with a usual bad accessibility or which are likely to be isolated).

- Mapping of the predictable spatial impacts.

GIS

STAKEHOLDERS

Pinpointing of the urban facilities and activities;

Mapping of the networks and their evolution.

Geoprocessings

Network analysis;

Assessment of their exposure to hazards

Evaluation of the accessibility and the traffic deviations

Useful diagnosis for the stakeholders (brings to the fore the vulnerabilities and allows prioritisation to orientate the actions on the most vulnerable critical infrastructures and lifelines);

Proposals of ideas for mitigation.

Reflection on the risks the city is exposed to.

Orientation of the urban preventive planning and proposals for actions to be taken during a crisis.

Urban system analysis;

identification and location of the key urban facilities

(work carried out by the other researchers of our team)

Provides

knowledge for

Proceedings of the seminars and workshops organised for the 30 ^th anniversary of the presence of IRD in Ecuador

Quito, Ecuador - October 2004 – pp. 164-166 F. Demoraes

0 4000 m.

Critical roads / lifelines DMQ

(Metropolitan Area) Consolitaded City

A, B, C : Areas of which the accessibility is likely to be severly hampered, should a critical road failure happen.

a widespread impact

(over the whole metropolitan area) a shorter-range impact

(over some parts of the metropolitan area) Key urban facilities of which the loss of their serviceability is likely to have:

A

B

C

Risk spatial ranges: predicted outcomes derived from a loss of accessibility which could affect key

urban facilities, should a critical road failure happen in the metropolitan area of Quito