A Methodological Framework for Railway Trespass Risk Assessment and Prioritization

The paper presents the conceptual development and the implementation of an engineering methodology designed to define a priority ranking for the mitigating actions along sections of a railway network affected by the trespass phenomenon, the unauthorized access of individuals to railway premises. The proposed approach integrates territorial, infrastructural, and behavioral datasets to identify the main contributing factors and quantify the intensity of trespass occurrences according to spatial and land use characteristics of the concerned areas. The methodological framework is conceptually derived from Ohm’s law, where the potential difference represents the need for movement across the railway infrastructure, while resistance refers to natural or artificial barriers that hinder such movements. Thereafter, the model was refined through the adoption of a gravitational interaction approach, inspired by Newton’s law, linking population density, point-of-interest attractiveness, and territorial impedance to the likelihood of unauthorized crossings. By integrating data from the database of physical infrastructures and additional parameters provided by the Infrastructure manager, 42 territorial and infrastructural featuring elements were identified and classified as points of attraction (V) or resistances (R). Each parameter was associated with specific extraction ranges, normalized units, and GIS-based computational procedures. The resulting indicators allow the classification of railway sections and locations according to their trespass risk level, supporting evidence-based planning of preventive and safety-oriented actions across the railway system.