Defending the Pittsburgh Waterways Against Catastrophic Disruption

This thesis develops an Operatorâ s Model that mimics the real-world behavior of coal transport in the Port of Pittsburgh and allows for systematic investigation of â what ifâ disruption scenarios. We model the multi-modal flow of coal using a network of nodes and arcs representing river transport, with support from a surrounding system of rail lines and roads. Each mode of shipment has finite capacities with varying costs. Our model routes flows in order to satisfy contracted supplies and demands at minimum transportation cost. We use 2009 coal shipment data provided by the United States Army Corps of Engineers to drive delivery patterns. We focus our attention on the Monongahela River, which carries a significant amount of coal through our system. We employ Defender-Attacker-Defender techniques to assess critical infrastructure in the context of an intelligent adversary, such as a terrorist, who seeks to damage the system so as to maximally increase its operating cost. This allows us to assess the relative importance of critical system components in order to help the United Stated Coast Guard identify where to focus their attention.http://archive.org/details/defendingpittsbu109457296Captain, United States Marine Corp

What kind of future for the Port of Beirut

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2002.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-96).The purpose of my thesis is to try to determine whether the port of Beirut can take advantage of his geographical position and redefine its role as either a transshipment hub or a transit gateway. It is obvious that in the present there are various new players that were able to take advantage of their location and of the technological changes to improve the performance of their ports while Lebanon was still trying to recover from its destroying war. The advance in technologies and the move to containerized traffic have rendered old port structures completely obsolete in favor of new ports that were able to cater for the new needs of this century. The Port of Beirut will be competing with ports on the East Mediterranean coast as well on the Arabian Gulf A five-force model will be used to assess the level of competition in the field and the ease of entry. This will include studying the characteristics of all the other players, their ports structural adequacy and their services. According to the analysis I will try to define on what basis the port can compete and what he has to do internally and externally to be able to gain a certain niche of the market. In all cases, the country will need to undertake major reforms in view of the new era of privatization that is being used extensively in the transport sector.by Leila J. Sawaya.S.M

U.S. Inland Waterway Modernization: A Reconnaissance Study, April 2013

The Mississippi River system is of vital importance to the economy of the United States as it enables efficient movement of goods and services. Over the course of the last century, a network of federally owned locks and dams constructed and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) have facilitated commerce along the river. Many of these facilities have reached or even far exceeded their designed life cycle and rehabilitation and modernization is becoming critical to keep the waterways commercially viable. As the state of Iowa has a vested interest in a viable waterway commerce and transportation system, the Iowa Department of Transportation is examining alternatives to the USACE’s traditional approach to funding and implementing projects to help modernize and improve the inland waterway navigation system on the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS). This study is intended to identify and discuss the viability of options available

FM 5-30, Engineer Intelligence, May 1959

When this manual was issued, military intelligence in the US armed forces was highly decentralized. A number of organizations within the Army Corps of Engineers were responsible for producing engineer intelligence for US forces in the field and strategic engineer intelligence for use by the Department of Defense and US armed forces. This detailed manual defines the engineer intelligence at length. It explains the role of the Corps of Engineers in the United States and of engineer elements within US forces in the field. It explains the intelligence process, the planning and direction of collection efforts, the collection of information, and the production of finished intelligence

Living Apart Together: Rotterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg: relationships between port and city under pressure

Ports and port cities have been separated throughout the years as a result of global dynamics like increase in scale. This can be noticed all over the world but variation can be seen in the way these dynamics have been absorbed. This thesis researches the way the port cities Rotterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg have been dealing with these develoopments. Characteristics of various political economic systems have been distinguised as a possible explanation for the differences in outcome

While Waiting for Rain

What might a sensible community choose to do if its economy has fallen apart and becoming a ghost town is not an acceptable option? Unfortunately, answers to this question have long been measured against an implicit standard: the postwar economy of the 1950s. After showing why that economy provides an implausible standard—made possible by the lack of economic competition from the European and Asian countries, winners or losers, touched by the war—John Henry Schlegel attempts to answer the question of what to do. While Waiting for Rain first examines the economic history of the United States as well as that of Buffalo, New York: an appropriate stand-in for any city that may have seen its economy start to fall apart in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. It makes clear that neither Buffalo nor the United States as a whole has had an economy in the sense of “a persistent market structure that is the fusion of an understanding of economic life with the patterns of behavior within the economic, political, and social institutions that enact that understanding” since both economies collapsed. Next, this book builds a plausible theory of how economic growth might take place by examining the work of the famous urbanist, Jane Jacobs, especially her book Cities and the Wealth of Nations. Her work, like that of many others, emphasizes the importance of innovation for economic growth, but is singular in its insistence that such innovation has to come from local resources. It can neither be bought nor given, even by well-intentioned political actors. As a result Americans generally, as well as locally, are like farmers in the midst of a drought, left to review their resources and wait. Finally, it returns to both the local Buffalo and the national economies to consider what these political units might plausibly do while waiting for an economy to emerge

While Waiting for Rain: Community, Economy, and Law in a Time of Change

What might a sensible community choose to do if its economy has fallen apart and becoming a ghost town is not an acceptable option? Unfortunately, answers to this question have long been measured against an implicit standard: the postwar economy of the 1950s. After showing why that economy provides an implausible standard—made possible by the lack of economic competition from the European and Asian countries, winners or losers, touched by the war—John Henry Schlegel attempts to answer the question of what to do. While Waiting for Rain first examines the economic history of the United States as well as that of Buffalo, New York: an appropriate stand-in for any city that may have seen its economy start to fall apart in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. It makes clear that neither Buffalo nor the United States as a whole has had an economy in the sense of “a persistent market structure that is the fusion of an understanding of economic life with the patterns of behavior within the economic, political, and social institutions that enact that understanding” since both economies collapsed. Next, this book builds a plausible theory of how economic growth might take place by examining the work of the famous urbanist, Jane Jacobs, especially her book Cities and the Wealth of Nations. Her work, like that of many others, emphasizes the importance of innovation for economic growth, but is singular in its insistence that such innovation has to come from local resources. It can neither be bought nor given, even by well-intentioned political actors. As a result Americans generally, as well as locally, are like farmers in the midst of a drought, left to review their resources and wait. Finally, it returns to both the local Buffalo and the national economies to consider what these political units might plausibly do while waiting for an economy to emerge.https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/books/1178/thumbnail.jp

Introduction to Supply Chain and Operations Management – A Real World Perspective

This project was funded by KU Libraries’ Parent’s Campaign with support from the David Shulenburger Office of Scholarly Communication & Copyright and the Open Educational Resources Working Group in the University of Kansas Libraries.This textbook looks at operations management and supply chain management from a real world perspective. The foundations of operations and supply chain are presented in a format that builds upon the theories found in most operations management texts but looks at the applications of the principles through the lens of experience and practice using examples from over 40 years as a practitioner, strategic planner and consultant. The goal of the textbook is to supplement lectures and discussions about operations and supply chain management while linking the topics to other disciplines within a business environment. The topics are grouped based on the Supply Chain Council’s Supply Chain Operations Reference Model core functions.University of Kansas Librarie