ABSTRACT
Transportation infrastructure is highly vulnerable to natural hazards such as earthquakes, landslides, and floods, often resulting in traffic disruptions. In the Indian Himalayan region, particularly during the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM), landslide-induced slope failures frequently damage road pavements and embankments, causing severe disruption. Fragility curves are widely used to assess the vulnerability of infrastructure like roads and bridges under such hazard conditions, as they model the probability of structural damage given a certain hazard intensity. This study aims to develop fragility curves for road embankments affected by debris flows, focusing on the erosion and instability mechanisms of exposed slopes. Taking the 2013 North India floods in Uttarakhand as a case study, fragility curves were generated to identify risk-prone segments along major roads. These curves offer insight into the spatial distribution of vulnerability, and the scenario-based assessment enables recommendations for future mitigation strategies, providing a valuable tool for disaster-resilient infrastructure planning.
