Collaborative Research: Flexible Multi-Scale Models of Transportation Network Service Recovery

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

The objective of this award is to transform emergency response planning for transportation service disruptions through the formulation and integration of hierarchical multi-scale models: (i) network optimization and expected covering models to evaluate strategies for allocating emergency responders across highway networks, and (ii) an economic interdependency model to optimize the multi-sector, multi-regional impacts of emergency response strategies on overarching productivity objectives. In the first tier of the modeling hierarchy, the PIs will formulate new transportation network optimization models to identify optimal configurations of emergency responders and dispatching protocols for resolving prioritized incidents based on utility and coverage metrics. In the second tier of the modeling hierarchy, the PIs will formulate an economic interdependency model to evaluate the efficacy of transportation network service strategies in minimizing congestion and higher-level objectives such as disruptions to workforce and commodity flows, economic loss, and sector inoperability. If successful, the results of this research will enhance the capability of transportation planners and emergency managers through flexible models for deploying emergency responders to resolve varying incident priorities, as well as expanding the optimization focus to include large-scale interdependent impacts due to disruptions in workforce and commodity flows. This research will benefit society through an integrated framework for managing transportation resources from tactical (response) to strategic (multi-sector, multi-region impact) levels. The results have the potential to inform national guidelines for managing disruptions to critical interdependent infrastructure systems. Broader dissemination to the general public will be achieved via the creation of Internet-based research blogs and videos to explain the role of optimization, probability modeling, queuing, and regional economic analysis in modeling important service enterprise and public safety applications.