Guest editorial: Resilience of Networks

In recent years, the complex dynamics of local as well as global transport networks have attracted ever increasing attention due to reports of their multiple failures and deleterious impacts, which have often occurred during disruptive events. Not only have hazards recently increased in complexity and intensity but their impacts are also no longer confined within the local boundaries of specific transport operations, and instead more widely affect global connections and accessibility. The above mentioned merge of characteristics within transport systems has compelled scholars and practitioners to place great emphasis on exploring transport systems from different perspectives of resilience and vulnerability. Research findings from the analyses on the various dimensions of transport resilience and vulnerability now allow us to better understand the similarities and differences in systems, but more importantly, they have opened the way for researchers to relate concepts of resilience and vulnerability with those of interdependency and connectivity/accessibility. From this stand point, it seems necessary to reflect on the relevance of transport network resilience and vulnerability by exploring definitions, interpretations and applications from different methodological/empirical angles and perspectives. This is the platform which has paved the way to this Special Issue (SI).