Estimating the Operational Impact of Container Inspections at International Ports

A U.S. law mandating nonintrusive imaging and radiation detection for 100% of U.S.-bound containers at international ports has provoked widespread concern that the resulting congestion would hinder trade significantly. Using detailed data on container movements, gathered from two large international terminals, we simulate the impact of the two most important inspection policies that are being considered. We find that the current inspection regime being advanced by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security can only handle a small percentage of the total load. An alternate inspection protocol that emphasizes screening—a rapid primary scan of all containers, followed by a more careful secondary scan of only a few containers that fail the primary test—holds promise as a feasible solution for meeting the 100% scanning requirement

Simulation framework of port operation and recovery planning

This study proposes a framework of simulation tool suites for ports to evaluate their response to disaster crisis and port security policies. The focus is containerized cargos that are imported through ports in the U.S. with final destinations also in the U.S. A crisis, such as a man-made or natural disaster, may cause a delay at the seaport. The down time of ports may result in severe economic losses. Thus, when a seaport cannot normally operate, it is important to minimize the impact caused by the disrupted freight flow. Port security policies also have a significant impact on the port operation efficiency. This model developed in this study evaluates the performance of re-routing strategies under different crisis scenarios and can help the user to find an effective re-routing decision and analyze security policies of a port. This model also analyzes security policies of the simulation port

An Independent Review of the E.U. Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Regulations

Illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing refers to fishing activities that do not comply with national, regional, or international fisheries conservation or management legislation or measures . IUU fishing is complex and affects many stakeholders from the individual artisanal fisher in national waters, to fishing fleets in Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) and the High Seas, to fish processor and fisheries managers in developed and developing countries. Illegal fishing occurs in every ocean in the world, resulting in the loss of individual jobs and income, depletion of existing fish stocks, damage to the marine environment, and loss of state revenue . It affects activities both at sea and onshore, such as shipment, transportation, landing, importation and exportation, sale, and distribution of fish products . IUU fishing also has the potential to reduce the amount of fish available to subsistence fishers and communities who rely on fish as their staple diet. For example in Sierra Leone, fish provides approximately 65% of the protein source consumed by the under-nourished population. Thus people's livelihoods and food security may be seriously threatened by the possibility of losing access to this food source as result of IUU fishing

Use of DELPHI-AHP Method to Identify annd Analyze Risks in Seaport Dry Port System

The dry port concept has recently gained rising consideration in the multimodal transport context from the point of view both of researchers and stakeholders related to the benefits of the seaport dry port system. Given the relevance of the topic, the present paper aims to identify the potential risk factors of the three major parts that constitute the seaport dry port system and present a conceptual framework to facilitate risk factors analysis. Based on a three-step approach, starting with a systematic literature review, which resulted in 204 collected and examined papers, which allowed identifying 181 potential risk factors with an average of 60 risk factors in each major part of the studied system. In addition, we used a survey based on the Delphi technique to ensure a good extraction of data from 12 selected experts related to the seaport dry port system; then, we used the MCDM (Multiple-Criteria Decision-Making) method AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) in order to: 1) present a hierarchy that simplifies the complexity of the studied system in an organized structure; 2) analyze and assess risk factors based on the identified criteria. A case study involving the Moroccan seaport dry port system of Casablanca illustrates that the seaport part is critical and any major risk factor in this part can even paralyze the operations of the whole system, especially if that risk factor belongs to the human factors category or economic risk category, which is also considered in the study as a critical category

Effect and Improvement Areas for Port State Control Inspections to Decrease the Probability of Casualty

This report is the fourth part of a PhD project called "The Econometrics of Maritime Safety – Recommendations to Enhance Safety at Sea" and is based on 183,000 port state control inspections and 11,700 casualties from various data sources. Its overall objective is to provide recommendations to improve safety at sea. The fourth part looks into measuring the effect of inspections on the probability of casualty on either seriousness or casualty first event to show the differences across the regimes. It further gives a link of casualties that were found during inspections with either the seriousness of casualties and casualty first events which reveals three areas of improvement possibilities to potentially decrease the probability of a casualty – the ISM code, machinery and equipment and ship and cargo operations.maritime safety;correspondence analysis;binary logistic regression;probability of casualty;improvement;Port State Control Effectiveness;casualty first events;detention;port state control deficiences;target factor

Development of a multimodal port freight transportation model for estimating container throughput

Computer based simulation models have often been used to study the multimodal freight transportation system. But these studies have not been able to dynamically couple the various modes into one model; therefore, they are limited in their ability to inform on dynamic system level interactions. This research thesis is motivated by the need to dynamically couple the multimodal freight transportation system to operate at multiple spatial and temporal scales. It is part of a larger research program to develop a systems modeling framework applicable to freight transportation. This larger research program attempts to dynamically couple railroad, seaport, and highway freight transportation models. The focus of this thesis is the development of the coupled railroad and seaport models. A separate volume (Wall 2010) on the development of the highway model has been completed. The model railroad and seaport was developed using Arena® simulation software and it comprises of the Ports of Savannah, GA, Charleston, NC, Jacksonville, FL, their adjacent CSX rail terminal, and connecting CSX railroads in the southeastern U.S. However, only the simulation outputs for the Port of Savannah are discussed in this paper. It should be mentioned that the modeled port layout is only conceptual; therefore, any inferences drawn from the model's outputs do not represent actual port performance. The model was run for 26 continuous simulation days, generating 141 containership calls, 147 highway truck deliveries of containers, 900 trains, and a throughput of 28,738 containers at the Port of Savannah, GA. An analysis of each train's trajectory from origin to destination shows that trains spend between 24 - 67 percent of their travel time idle on the tracks waiting for permission to move. Train parking demand analysis on the adjacent shunting area at the multimodal terminal seems to indicate that there aren't enough containers coming from the port because the demand is due to only trains waiting to load. The simulation also shows that on average it takes containerships calling at the Port of Savannah about 3.2 days to find an available dock to berth and unload containers. The observed mean turnaround time for containerships was 4.5 days. This experiment also shows that container residence time within the port and adjacent multimodal rail terminal varies widely. Residence times within the port range from about 0.2 hours to 9 hours with a mean of 1 hour. The average residence time inside the rail terminal is about 20 minutes but observations varied from as little as 2 minutes to a high of 2.5 hours. In addition, about 85 percent of container residence time in the port is spent idle. This research thesis demonstrates that it is possible to dynamically couple the different sub-models of the multimodal freight transportation system. However, there are challenges that need to be addressed by future research. The principal challenge is the development of a more efficient train movement algorithm that can incorporate the actual Direct Traffic Control (DTC) and / or Automatic Block Signal (ABS) track segmentation. Such an algorithm would likely improve the capacity estimates of the railroad network. In addition, future research should seek to reduce the high computational cost imposed by a discrete process modeling methodology and the adoption of single container resolution level for terminal operations. A methodology combining both discrete and continuous process modeling as proposed in this study could lessen computational costs and lower computer system requirements at a cost of some of the feedback capabilities of the model This tradeoff must be carefully examined.M.S.Committee Chair: Rodgers, Michael; Committee Member: Guensler, Randall; Committee Member: Hunter, Michae

Analysis of truck delays at container terminal security inspection stations

After September 11, 2001, special attention has been given to the vulnerability at container transportation to terrorist activities. United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has set up inspection stations for containers at seaport terminals to screen containers, but this practice affects the truck turnaround time in the seaport by generating additional processing delays. This dissertation analyses the additional truck turnaround time incurred at the inspection stations under various levels of security. Queuing models were used to estimate truck delay as containers are inspected at two successive security inspection stages. Each stage may utilize one or more inspection equipment. The objective is to determine the number of equipment needed to keep the total delay at an acceptable level. Homeland security, CBP, seaport terminal officers, truck and marine carriers may use this research to develop an effective and efficient plan for handling marine freight and containers

A Stackelberg game model for resource allocation in cargo container security

Cataloged from PDF version of article.This paper presents a game theoretic model that analyzes resource allocation strategies against an adaptive adversary to secure cargo container transportation. The defender allocates security resources that could interdict an unauthorized weapon insertion inside a container. The attacker observes the defender’s security strategy and chooses a site to insert the weapon. The attacker’s goal is to maximize the probability that the weapon reaches its target. The basic model includes a single container route. The results in the basic model suggest that in equilibrium the defender should maintain an equal level of physical security at each site on the cargo container’s route. Furthermore, the equilibrium levels of resources to interdict the weapon overseas increase as a function of the attacker’s capability to detonate the weapon remotely at a domestic seaport. Investment in domestic seaport security is highly sensitive to the attacker’s remote detonation capability as well. The general model that includes multiple container routes suggests that there is a trade-off between the security of foreign seaports and the physical security of sites including container transfer facilities, container yards, warehouses and truck rest areas. The defender has the flexibility to shift resources between non-intrusive inspections at foreign seaports and physical security of other sites on the container route. The equilibrium is also sensitive to the cost effectiveness of security investments