Post-earthquake functionality assessment protocol for hydraulic infrastructure in lowland areas

This paper presents a novel post-earthquake functionality assessment protocol for strategic hydraulic infrastructure in lowland areas. This infrastructure is crucial for maintaining operational services such as water supply, flood control, river navigation, and electricity generation, but is vulnerable to earthquakes and floods. Their loss of functionality could have detrimental effects on a territorial scale. The proposed control procedure introduced a multi-level inspection strategy that integrates both structural (e.g. reinforced concrete columns, beams, nodes, or walls) and nonstructural components (e.g. gates, mechanical and electrical systems). The inspections are activated at specific control levels defined by infrastructure vulnerability derived from fragility curves unlike conventional approaches. The main objective of the procedure is to identify any damage, anomaly, or malfunction following an earthquake. To demonstrate the rationality of the procedure, a case study is presented for the province of Ferrara, an area known for its seismic and flood hazards with a high density of hydraulic infrastructure. Earthquake-induced damage may affect their hydraulic performance, making a survey and evaluation protocol useful for the assessment of the residual functionality. The proposed procedure provides decision-makers with a valuable tool to prioritize interventions and activate appropriate controls based on earthquake scenarios.