Risk Analysis for Urban Road Tunnel Operation Safety based on Social Network Analysis (SNA)

The environment of urban road tunnels is complex resulting in the occurrence of multiple potential risks, which have a great impact on the safety and efficiency of urban road traffic. Hence, a risk analysis of urban road tunnels during the operation stage is crucial for accident prevention and road tunnel operation safety promotion. However, previous studies on the risk analysis of tunnel operation mostly regarded risk factors as isolated points, without considering the impact of the complex relationship between risks. The objective of this study is to explore the interaction among all the risk factors and investigate the most influential factors in urban road tunnel operation. First, a risk analysis method based on social network analysis (SNA) is proposed to identify the core risk factors and analyze the risk mitigation strategies. Then, according to the characteristics of correlation of risk factors, a network of risk factors for urban road tunnel operation is constructed from multi-dimensional perspectives such as tunnel, human, environment, vehicle, and management factors. Furthermore, the core risk factors and the key risk interactions are identified based on SNA. Finally, the risk mitigation effectiveness by removing these factors and relationships is validated by simulation. This study contributes to providing a new perspective for tunnel operation safety management and can assist stakeholders in developing rational risk governance to improve risk management and reduce the frequency of unsafe events.