A Risky Road: How Does Urban Morphology Change Cities: Risk Levels for Urban Explosions?

This project aims to synthesise ideas from the fields of urban morphology and blast protection engineering. Cities can be viewed as a series of superposed networks of transportation infrastructure, water networks, electricity networks, interspersed with buildings of high social importance, such as hospitals, energy facilities and government buildings (Markis et al., 2023). Sociophysical model of urban phenomena rely on studying cities' street networks as the main governing factor of these urban dynamics. The quantification of urban networks has shown to be effective in measuring socioeconomic outputs and urban efficiency (Bettencourt, 2013) and the quantity of CO2 emitted in congested areas (Louf and Barthelemy, 2014). Through the quantification of urban networks, this project aims to develop new urban blast risk assessment models informed by cities' street networks. Such models will allow for rapid identification of high-risk urban areas for both blast initiation and propagation. This will enable the development of an urban-wide assessment model which uses the existing street network to integrate blast protection solutions into the planning process for cities and their public spaces.