IBIS: A Community-Oriented Framework for Flood-Induced Bridge Vulnerability Assessment and Prioritization for Iowa

Floods are among the most frequent and damaging natural hazards, posing serious risks to transportation infrastructure and public safety. Bridges, as essential links in road and rail networks, are especially vulnerable, and their closures can trigger widespread disruption, economic losses, and reduced access to vital services. Effective flood-risk mitigation and emergency response require systems that integrate diverse data sources and deliver actionable information on infrastructure vulnerability and operational risk. Although several web platforms support asset management or flood forecasting, few provide an environment dedicated to bridge-specific vulnerability, where hazard data, structural characteristics, and operational factors can be examined together. The Iowa Bridge Information Service (IBIS) addresses this gap through a web-based framework that combines structural, spatial, and hydrological datasets to support flood-focused risk assessment for communities in Iowa. IBIS enables users to analyze bridge exposure through configurable filters, scenario-based flood overlays, and interactive tools such as heatmaps and statistical summaries. It applies multiple criteria decision-making techniques, including the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), to evaluate vulnerability based on condition, traffic, detour length, and closure potential. County and watershed views allow assessment at policy-relevant and hydrologically meaningful scales. By combining data, analysis, and visualization in a single framework, IBIS provides a practical tool for maintenance planning, emergency preparedness, and resilience strategies for infrastructures generalizable to many flood-prone regions around the world.