A decision support system for integrated hazardous materials routing and emergency response decisions

Hazardous materials routing constitutes a critical decision in mitigating the associated transportation risk. This paper presents a decision support system for assessing alternative distribution routes in terms of travel time, risk and evacuation implications while coordinating the emergency response deployment decisions with the hazardous materials routes. The proposed system provides the following functionalities: (i) determination of alternative non-dominated hazardous materials distribution routes in terms of cost and risk minimization, (ii) specification of the hazardous materials first-response emergency service units locations in order to achieve timely response to an accident, and (iii) determination of evacuation paths from the impacted area to designated shelters and estimation of the associated evacuation time. The proposed system has been implemented, used and evaluated for assessing alternative hazardous materials routing decisions within the heavily industrialized area of Thriasion Pedion of Attica, Greece. The implementation of the aforementioned functionalities is based on two new integer programming models for the hazardous materials routing and the emergency response units location problems, respectively. A simplified version of the routing model is solved by an existing heuristic algorithm developed by the authors. A new Lagrangean relaxation heuristic algorithm has been developed for solving the emergency response units location problem. The focus of this paper is on the exposition of the proposed decision support system components and functionalities. Special emphasis is placed on the presentation of the two new mathematical models and the new solution method for the location model.

[1]  T. B. Boffey,et al.  Optimal location of routes for vehicles transporting hazardous materials , 1995 .

[2]  Mark A. Turnquist,et al.  Modeling and Analysis for Hazardous Materials Transportation: Risk Analysis, Routing/Scheduling and Facility Location , 1991, Transp. Sci..

[3]  Konstantinos G. Zografos,et al.  Multi‐Objective Programming Approach for Routing Hazardous Materials , 1989 .

[4]  Thomas J. Cova,et al.  A network flow model for lane-based evacuation routing , 2003 .

[5]  Athanasios K. Ziliaskopoulos,et al.  A Linear Programming Model for the Single Destination System Optimum Dynamic Traffic Assignment Problem , 2000, Transp. Sci..

[6]  Roger Gary Cox,et al.  Routing and scheduling of hazardous materials shipments : algorithmic approaches to managing spent nuclear fuel transport , 1985 .

[7]  Mark D. Abkowitz,et al.  TRANSPORTATION HAZARD ANALYSIS IN INTEGRATED GIS ENVIRONMENT , 1993 .

[8]  Mark A. Turnquist,et al.  SCHEDULING TRUCK SHIPMENTS OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS IN THE PRESENCE OF CURFEWS , 1986 .

[9]  George L. Nemhauser,et al.  Handbooks in operations research and management science , 1989 .

[10]  Christos Douligeris,et al.  An integrated framework for managing emergency-response logistics: the case of the electric utility companies , 1998 .

[11]  Erhan Erkut,et al.  Catastrophe Avoidance Models for Hazardous Materials Route Planning , 2000, Transp. Sci..

[12]  F F Saccomanno,et al.  ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF ROUTING STRATEGIES FOR HAZARDOUS ROAD SHIPMENTS , 1985 .

[13]  G. F. List,et al.  Routing and emergency-response-team siting for high-level radioactive waste shipments , 1998 .

[14]  Mark A. Turnquist,et al.  Estimating truck travel patterns in urban areas , 1994 .

[15]  Mark A. Turnquist,et al.  Integrated Routing and Scheduling in Hazardous Materials Transportation , 1997, Transp. Sci..

[16]  Christos Douligeris,et al.  SIMULATION MODEL FOR EVALUATING THE PERFORMANCE OF EMERGENCY RESPONSE FLEETS , 1994 .

[17]  K G Zografos,et al.  An Analytical Framework for Minimizing Freeway Incident Response Time , 1993 .

[18]  Michael Pidd,et al.  A simulation model for emergency evacuation , 1996 .

[19]  Dimitri P. Bertsekas,et al.  Nonlinear Programming , 1997 .

[20]  Mark R. McCord,et al.  Sensitivity Of Optimal Hazmat Routes To Limited Preference Specification , 1995 .

[21]  Vedat Verter,et al.  Hazardous Materials Logistics , 1995 .

[22]  Antoine G. Hobeika,et al.  A Decision Support System for Developing Evacuation Plans around Nuclear Power Stations , 1994 .

[23]  Jacques Desrosiers,et al.  Survey Paper - Time Window Constrained Routing and Scheduling Problems , 1988, Transp. Sci..

[24]  Jacques Desrosiers,et al.  Time Constrained Routing and Scheduling , 1992 .

[25]  Warren B. Powell,et al.  A transportation network evacuation model , 1982 .

[26]  Mark S. Daskin,et al.  Time Dependent Vehicle Routing Problems: Formulations, Properties and Heuristic Algorithms , 1992, Transp. Sci..

[27]  Shih-Ho Wang.  An improved stepsize of the subgradient algorithm for solving the lagrangian relaxation problem , 2003, Comput. Electr. Eng..

[28]  Kurt Fedra,et al.  Decision support systems for dangerous goods transportation , 1995 .

[29]  Theodore S. Glickman.  REROUTING RAILROAD SHIPMENTS OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS TO AVOID POPULATED AREAS , 1983 .

[30]  Kostas Zografos,et al.  A heuristic algorithm for solving hazardous materials distribution problems , 2004, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[31]  Andrew A. Lovett,et al.  Assessing Hazardous Waste Transport Risks Using a GIS , 1996, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[32]  Jean-Claude Thill,et al.  Spatial decision support system for hazardous material truck routing , 2000 .

[33]  Rajan Batta,et al.  Optimal Obnoxious Paths on a Network: Transportation of Hazardous Materials , 1988, Oper. Res..

[34]  Liping Fu,et al.  Quantitative Risk Assessment Decision-Support Model for Locating Hazardous Materials Teams , 2004 .

[35]  Konstantinos G. Zografos,et al.  Heuristic Algorithms for Solving Hazardous Materials Logistical Problems , 2002 .

[36]  Hani S. Mahmassani,et al.  Optimal Scheduling of Evacuation Operations , 2006 .

[37]  Hani S. Mahmassani,et al.  System optimal and user equilibrium time-dependent traffic assignment in congested networks , 1995, Ann. Oper. Res..

[38]  F F Saccomanno,et al.  LOCATING EMERGENCY RESPONSE CAPABILITY FOR DANGEROUS GOODS INCIDENTS ON A ROAD NETWORK , 1988 .

[39]  Kurt Fedra.  Advanced Decision-Oriented Software for the Management of Hazardous Substances: Part II: A Demonstration Prototype System , 1986 .

[40]  Konstantinos G. Zografos,et al.  A real-time decision support system for roadway network incident response logistics , 2002 .

[41]  Francesca Fumero,et al.  A modified subgradient algorithm for Lagrangean relaxation , 2001, Comput. Oper. Res..

[42]  Marshall L. Fisher,et al.  The Lagrangian Relaxation Method for Solving Integer Programming Problems , 2004, Manag. Sci..

[43]  Kurt Fedra,et al.  COMPUTER-ASSISTED ROUTING OF DANGEROUS GOODS FOR HAUTE-NORMANDIE , 1993 .

[44]  Mark D. Abkowitz,et al.  USE OF GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN MANAGING HAZARDOUS MATERIALS SHIPMENTS , 1990 .

[45]  Bruce L. Golden,et al.  Vehicle Routing with Time-Window Constraints , 1986 .

[46]  Moshe Ben-Akiva,et al.  Discrete Choice Analysis: Theory and Application to Travel Demand , 1985 .

[47]  Alexander H. G. Rinnooy Kan,et al.  Vehicle Routing with Time Windows , 1987, Oper. Res..

[48]  Michel Gendreau,et al.  Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows, Part I: Route Construction and Local Search Algorithms , 2005, Transp. Sci..

[49]  K. Train.  Qualitative Choice Analysis: Theory, Econometrics, and an Application to Automobile Demand , 1985 .

[50]  João C. N. Clímaco,et al.  Interactive Spatial Decision-Support System for Multiobjective Hazardous Materials Location-Routing Problems , 1997 .