Improving Resilience and Sustainability of Intermodal Freight Transportation Systems

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This research program focuses on enhancing resilience and sustainability in freight transportation. On one hand, increasing risks from accidents, weather-induced hazards, and terrorist attacks indicate the need for the development of more resilient transportation networks that are robust enough to operate during and after disruptions. On the other hand, sustainable transport has been recognized as a key development objective and an integral part of the Transportation 2030, the strategic plan for the future of transportation in Canada. While design of sustainable transportation systems has been examined in the academic literature, the research on potential impacts of disruptions on the sustainability performance of freight transportation systems is virtually non-existent. This is the area where this program aims to address, that is developing resilience strategies that ensure the freight transport systems remain sustainable even in face of disruptions. We choose to focus our study on shipment planning of road-rail intermodal freight transportation (RRIFT), since this method offers an effective platform for more resilient and sustainable freight transportation. The long-term goal of this research program is to investigate how major disruptions can influence sustainability performance of RRIFT networks and to minimize their economic, social and environmental effects. We aim to develop theoretical/conceptual frameworks and decision tools (mathematical models and optimization algorithms) that can be utilized to design and plan of resilient and sustainable RRIFT systems under disruption risks. The proposed methodology involves developing new: 1) adjustable robust optimization and game-theoretic approaches to manage disruptions risks under conditions of very limited historical data, while accounting for decision makers' risk attitudes, 2) variants of conditional value-at-risk measures for assessing risk of release from hazardous materials carriers in the presence of disruptions, 3) multi-criteria decision making methods coupled with life cycle assessment approach for environmental performance evaluation, 4) robust multi-objective and multi-level optimization models to balance between economic, environmental and social objectives under disruption risks, 5) exact and heuristic algorithms for solving the formulated models, and 6) case studies to validate the results. This program will contribute to science and engineering knowledge by presenting advanced decision methods for designing and planning of resilient and sustainable RTIFT systems. The outcomes of this program can be used by transportation companies and regulatory agencies to design and plan of RTIFT systems which concurrently sustain economic growth, minimize social and environmental impacts, and yet be resilient to disruptions. Another benefit of this program is that it will design emergency response systems that can quickly respond to release of hazardous materials under disruption risks.