Improving Resilience and Sustainability of Intermodal Freight Transportation Systems

这项研究计划的重点是提高货运的弹性和可持续性。一方面，事故、天气引发的危险和恐怖袭击的风险不断增加，表明需要发展更具弹性的交通网络，这些网络足够强大，能够在中断期间和之后运行。另一方面，可持续交通已被确认为一项关键的发展目标，也是加拿大未来交通运输战略计划《2030年交通运输》的组成部分。虽然可持续运输系统的设计已经在学术文献中得到了研究，但关于中断对货运系统可持续性能的潜在影响的研究几乎是不存在的。这就是该计划旨在解决的领域，即制定弹性战略，确保货运系统即使面临中断也保持可持续发展。我们选择重点研究公铁联运的发货计划，因为这种方法为更具弹性和可持续的货物运输提供了一个有效的平台。该研究计划的长期目标是调查重大中断如何影响RRIFT网络的可持续性能，并将其对经济、社会和环境的影响降至最低。我们的目标是开发理论/概念框架和决策工具(数学模型和优化算法)，用于设计和规划在中断风险下具有弹性和可持续的RRIFT系统。所提出的方法包括发展新的：1)可调整的稳健优化和博弈论方法，用于在非常有限的历史数据条件下管理中断风险，同时考虑决策者的风险态度；2)各种条件风险值度量，用于评估存在中断的危险材料运输船的泄漏风险；3)多准则决策方法，结合用于环境性能评价的生命周期评估方法；4)稳健的多目标和多层次优化模型，以平衡中断风险下的经济、环境和社会目标；5)用于求解所建立的模型的精确和启发式算法；以及6)用于验证结果的案例研究。该计划将通过提供先进的决策方法来设计和规划弹性和可持续的RTIFT系统，从而为科学和工程知识做出贡献。运输公司和监管机构可以利用该项目的成果来设计和规划RTIFT系统，同时保持经济增长，最大限度地减少对社会和环境的影响，同时对中断具有弹性。该计划的另一个好处是，它将设计紧急响应系统，能够在中断风险下对危险材料的释放做出快速反应。

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.