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National Science Foundation
- Partnership to Maximize Port Industry Performance
Project Summary The freight and maritime transport industry is a complex system of private and government entities that are interdependent but lack established communication processes to leverage these interdependencies. This leads to a situation wherein stakeholders’ attempts within the industry to optimize their individual operations lead to suboptimal operating conditions and performance for the system as a whole. This proposal seeks to take advantage of existing relationships between Rutgers University, Container Terminals, State and Local Highway Agencies, freight, and technology companies and members of the Port of New York & New Jersey (PONYNJ) to create a forum for a dynamic and sustainable collaboration between the maritime industry and the wider research community. The primary objectives of this collaborative project are the improvement of freight movements, reduction of traffic congestion, an increase in the competitiveness of the Port and, thereby, improvement of the overall regional economy. These objectives will be achieved by: (i) Cultivation of relationships and understanding of roles among stakeholders in the wider freight transport system, (ii) Development of analytical group decision-making tools that will enable the partnership to evaluate collective efforts and the impact of individual decisions on other parties within the system, and (iii) Establishment of educational and training capabilities for practitioners, academics and students (Education -New courses). Within the collaborating units, there exists a reservoir of expertise gleaned from past and ongoing research projects and other activities. This includes in-depth expertise of key issues that are of direct and vital interest to the regional maritime and port community. Pooling resources, joining capabilities and developing synergistic strategies will serve to remedy the current fragmented situation in the maritime domain and create a robust venue for collaborative, interdisciplinary work. Intellectual Merit: This project will develop advanced and unique meso-micro simulation tools for helping industry stakeholders to jointly evaluate the impact of individual policies and decisions on the entire system. The distinguishing aspect of the meso-micro-simulation tools is in their ability to model large networks to a desired level of detail. Most current applications use either macro-simulation tools which allow modeling of a larger network but do not have the ability to capture congestion effects. In contrast, micro-simulation tools model congestion more realistically, but can only do so for a relatively small network thus, in most cases, not being able to model the entire area of interest. These simulation tools, when integrated within an analytical group decision-making framework will provide an interactive and mathematically robust testbed to simulate and evaluate various scenarios at the strategic, tactical and operational levels. Finally, this project will provide a mechanism for establishing industry-wide standards for overall optimal port performance. Broader Impact: Moving to a systemic
approach to decision-making within the freight and maritime transport
industry has the potential to improve efficiency and effectiveness of
the entire system. The improved performance of the freight and maritime
industry will have a significant economic impact, both locally in the
New York and New Jersey areas and globally. The collaborative forum
created under this project to understand interdependencies and industry-wide
dynamics also has the potential to improve security within the system.
Analytical tools developed as part of this project can be applied to
improve interactive dynamics within other complex systems such as law
enforcement. Accordingly, this project will yield applications far beyond
the freight and maritime industry. In summary, this project will create
significant direct economic and security benefits to the maritime industry
specifically and more generally to the citizens at large.
Figure 1. Project Approach and Methodology Partnerning Organizations.
Figure 2. Project Organization Structure Tools Available and/or Under Development
Publications
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