The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers oversees 12,000 miles of commercially navigable inland waterways in the United States, most of them vulnerable to terror attack that could dam up river traffic and halt the flow of cargo.
As part of that, the Corps maintains 276 lock chambers with a total lift of 6,100 feet. Loss of any of these water resources or related lock infrastructure could have immediate, and immense, economic and social impact.
Each year, inland and intracoastal shippers move about 630 million tons of cargo valued at over $73 billion to and from ports in 38 states. Barge traffic could not be easily or quickly replaced by rail or trucking to re-route commodities, including coal, petroleum and grains.
“When river traffic is disrupted, current decisions on prioritizing barge flow through ports are generally made on an ad hoc and individualized basis,” said Heather Nachtmann, a professor of industrial engineering and director of the Mack-Blackwell Rural Transportation Center at the University of Arkansas.
Nachtmann is trying to improve the way river traffic is handled in emergencies, to keep river traffic moving more efficaciously. She and colleagues at the Mack-Blackwell Center are developing a national decision-support system called Supporting Secure and Resilient Inland Waterways to help local, state and federal law enforcement and emergency management agencies identify commercially important rivers and infrastructure that may be especially vulnerable to terrorist attack or natural disaster.
The project’s primary goal is to better understand the interdependence of transportation systems that use water, land and rail for shipping goods. Specifically, the researchers are working to quantify the impact of this interdependence on the vulnerability and resilience of inland waterway transportation.
Nachtmann told Homeland1 that the system’s primary stakeholder is the U.S. Coast Guard.
“When a disruption occurs, vessel flow decisions fall under the responsibility of the local captain of the port, who would be able to use the SSRIW system to develop a cargo prioritization and redirection plan based on current transport, commodity and port information,” she said.
Nachtmann also anticipates spinoff value falling to the private sector, since port traffic decisions are commonly made by barge towing companies.
The researchers hope the SSRIW system will ultimately provide a systematic framework for prioritizing and redirecting cargo based on importance. Nachtmann said the project includes geospatial data, computer-based cargo prioritization and freight-routing models, and an emergency response model for inland waterway transportation systems.
SSRIW isn’t yet ready for prime time, however.
“We are currently meeting with system stakeholders, including data providers and potential system users within the USCG and the Army Corps of Engineers to ensure that the system data requirements are realistic and that the system output is meaningful,” Nachtmann said.
So far, the researchers are close to completing the conceptual phase of a prototype and expect development to commence within a few months.
SSRIW is supported by a $450,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security.