Planning for Risk Reduction in the Transport System at Urban Level

Globally, communities are committing to reducing the risks arising from different types of events. According to the classical formulation, risk comprehends occurrence and magnitude related to the potential damages produced by the event. Magnitude comprehends two components: exposure and vulnerability. It is possible to define specific actions for pursuing risk reduction according to the emergency management cycle and its phases (prevention, preparedness, response and recovery). This paper focuses on the preparedness phase and the transport planning process at the urban level. The process produces decisions about the configuration of the transport system and its components (supply, demand and interactions). Generally, planning decisions concern ordinary conditions but they have to be defined considering also implications for extraordinary situations. The objective of this paper is to present different issues of urban transport planning, one for each risk component. A single emergency event and the relative urban planning activities have been selected. The selected event represents a category of disasters with effects to be reduced with specific planned activities. The issues represent different problems and relative solutions to increase preparedness for emergency events at the urban level with a correct approach to risk assessment for supporting urban transport planning. The paper contributes to clarifying the characteristics of the risk’s components and relative urban transport planning activities aimed at reducing risk.