Transportation Planning for Floods - Phase III

A major problem associated with flood events is that many roads become impassible or passable at a highly reduced speed. The first year of this project was focused on developing a decision support tool to reflect the impact of flooding on roads and quickly compute new routes for potential flooding scenarios. The research team was able to establish new measures that reflect the accessibility of different locations after flooding events. In the second year, the team used this accessibility measure to help make location and delivery decisions for a disaster. Much of the disaster relief literature looks at issues such as how to locate temporary emergency supply points, allocate limited resources among these supply points, and make deliveries to those affected but without considering the impact of the disaster itself. In the third year, the team wants to add an important mitigation component to their work. For example, if there were structural improvements (levees, reservoirs/storage) or emergency sandbagging done for critical infrastructure? Can the impact on transportation network after the flood event be reduced with select mitigation options? The team also plans to continue to add to their decision support tool to incorporate the use of real time flooding data and maps. This would allow users across the state of Iowa to understand how their routes need to be changed based on updated conditions and road closures. This project would involve the participation of one graduate student and two PIs. The two PIs include an expert in operations research and disaster logistics, and an expert in flooding and information systems. The team believes the results of this work would be useful for groups such as governments and NGOs, as well as private citizens, trying to make decisions during flood events, such as evacuation planning, disaster preparedness, and emergency response.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $155800
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3551747107

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Mid-America Transportation Center

  University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  2200 Vine Street, PO Box 830851
  Lincoln, NE  United States  68583-0851
• Performing Organizations:

  University of Iowa, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

  3100 Seamans Center for the Engineering Arts and Sciences
  Iowa City, Iowa  United States  52242
• Principal Investigators:

  Campbell, Ann

• Start Date: 20200101
• Expected Completion Date: 20201231
• Actual Completion Date: 20230630
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program
• Source Data: RiP Project 91994-46

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Countermeasures; Decision support systems; Disasters and emergency operations; Floods; Maps; Real time information; Transportation planning
• Geographic Terms: Iowa
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Hydraulics and Hydrology; Operations and Traffic Management; Security and Emergencies; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01736452
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Mid-America Transportation Center
• Contract Numbers: 69A3551747107
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Apr 21 2020 5:07PM