Resilient Infrastructure and Elasticity of Cargo Movement Following a Natural Disaster Keywords: Resiliency, Infrastructure, Cargo Movement, Natural Disaster, Hurricane, Puerto Rico Resilient infrastr..
Resilient Infrastructure and Elasticity of Cargo Movement Following a Natural Disaster Keywords: Resiliency, Infrastructure, Cargo Movement, Natural Disaster, Hurricane, Puerto Rico Resilient infrastructure is imperative especially following natural or man-made disasters. The ability to move food, water, and relief supplies using multiple modes of transportation to areas recently affected by major disasters is oftentimes very difficult. Following Hurricane Maria’s landfall on Puerto Rico in 2018, 10,000 shipping containers were stranded in just one port of Puerto Rico unable to traverse the island to reach those in need. The lack of resilient infrastructure caused a delay in repair to normalcy for the entire island and delayed supplies that were already late to their destination even longer. The goal of this research is to model the elasticity of cargo arrival and departure under resilient infrastructure. The objective of this research is to determine the responsiveness of a mode of transportation to change under demand and restrictions. This model will be simulated in VISSIM by first modeling an individual port in Puerto Rico and then allowing this cargo to move along the major truck routes of the island and examining the dwell time and ultimate arrival time from the time it arrives in the port to when it reaches its destination. Its expected that a delay in final arrival time will still be seen; however, the delay time at the port and the delay time when the cargo reaches its final destination will not be linear. This research will help to bring improve well being to individuals of a society, increase public scientific literacy, improve national security, and enhance infrastructure for research and education.
