Investigating the Relationship between Efficiency and Criticality: Some Experimental Findings

Abstract

Resilience is a complex term, bearing multiple definitions and resilience-related metrics. Two of the most common metrics are efficiency and criticality. Efficiency examines resilience from a topological aspect and considers the shortest paths between the nodes, whereas criticality considers transportation-related variables such as travel demand. In the present research, the interrelation between efficiency and criticality is examined through a series of simulations on the Athens testbed. For the quantification of efficiency and criticality, an iterative approach is used where, per iteration, one link of the network was removed. The outputs of the experiments are then statistically analyzed. Findings reveal that the relation between efficiency and criticality hinders some complex dynamics that are approached by incorporating traffic flow in the investigation of their relation. As a result, a polynomial relationship between the ratio of criticality and efficiency, and traffic flow of each link per functional class of the links is developed.