Road networks are one of the most important infrastructure elements that support all kinds of socio-economic activities. In the case of disasters, the role of a road network is more crucial. The purpose of road disaster management is to increase resilience of road networks, effectively and efficiently. Resilience of road networks include not only resilience of the network itself (e.g., planning and construction of alternative road network or alternative transportation) but resilience of road facilities and road-related organizations (e.g., establishing a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)).
This report includes various case studies and the best practices for improving disaster management techniques. They are readily applicable to both developing and developed countries. Administrative mechanisms vary widely from country to country, and we did not focus on disaster management techniques that are applicable to specific countries. Note also that risk awareness plays a key role in managing disasters. Hence, careful investigation of risk awareness of the public and road organizations will be necessary when applying the disaster management techniques studied in this report in practice.
We studied disaster management and recovery techniques for road administrators from the four aspects, i.e., monitoring and detection of vulnerability, education and training, coordination and cooperation, and emergency operations and recovery approaches. These four aspects are vital areas to improve the current disaster management techniques and adapt them to the change of environment and society.
Resilience consists of the four properties: robustness, redundancy, resourcefulness and rapidity. Among the above-mentioned four aspects, "monitoring and detection of vulnerability" and "education and training" are important factors to enhance resourcefulness. "Coordination and cooperation" and "emergency operations and recovery approaches" contribute to enhancing rapidity.