The objective of the symposium was to provide a forum for the exchange of information about state-of-the-art research and technology applications to improve snow removal and ice control operations in transportation systems. Sixty-one papers were presented in the areas of policy and management, infrastructure and snow control, materials and applications, equipment, travel surface, environment and health, road weather information systems and forecasting, and safety and visibility. Papers were authored by maintenance engineers and researchers from Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Twenty-one of these papers are included in this publication.
The first and only comprehensive guide to best practices in winter road operations Winter maintenance operations are essential to ensure the safety, mobility, and productivity of transportation systems, especially in cold-weather climates, and responsible agencies are continually challenged to provide a high level of service in a fiscally and environmentally responsible manner. Sustainable Winter Road Operations bridges the knowledge gaps, providing the first up-to-date, authoritative, single-source overview and guide to best practices in winter road operations that considers the triple bottom line of sustainability. With contributions from experts in the field from around the world, this book takes a holistic approach to the subject. The authors address the many negative impacts on regional economies and the environment of poorly planned and inadequate winter road operations, and they make a strong case for the myriad benefits of environmentally sustainable concepts and practices. Best practice applications of materials, processes, equipment, and associated technologies and how they can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of winter operations, optimize materials usage, and minimize cost, corrosion, and environmental impacts are all covered in depth. Provides the first up-to-date, authoritative and comprehensive overview of best practices in sustainable winter road operations currently in use around the world Covers materials, processes, equipment, and associated technologies for sustainable winter road operations Brings together contributions by an international all-star team of experts with extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing sustainable winter road operations Designed to bring professionals involved in transportation and highway maintenance and control up to speed with current best practice Sustainable Winter Road Operations is essential reading for maintenance professionals dealing with snow and ice control operations on highways, motorways and local roads. It is a valuable source of information and guidance for decision makers, researchers, and engineers in transportation engineering involved in transportation and highway maintenance. And it is an ideal textbook for advanced-level courses in transportation engineering.
Winter road maintenance operations require many complex strategic and operational planning decisions. The five primary problems involved in this intricate planning procedure include locating depots, designing sectors, routing service vehicles, scheduling vehicles, and configuring the vehicle fleet. The complexity involved in each of these decisions has resulted mainly in research that approaches each of the problems separately and sequentially, which can lead to isolated and suboptimal solutions. After discussing the complexity of the relaxed subproblems that would need to be solved to optimize the intricate winter maintenance operations, the research turns to a heuristic approach to more feasibly address the interrelated problems. This report subsequently presents a systematic, heuristic-based optimization approach to integrate the winter road maintenance planning decisions for depot location, sector design, vehicle route design, vehicle scheduling, and fleet configuration. The approach presented is illustrated through an example of public sector winter road maintenance planning for a rural transportation network in Boone County, Missouri. When applied to the real-world winter road maintenance planning problems for Boone County, the methodology delivered very promising results. The solution methodology successfully achieves the objective of a more integrated and less sequential approach to the problems considered. The integrated solution would allow the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) to maintain the same high level of service with significantly fewerresources. The results indicate that this methodology is a successful step towards solving realistic multiple-depot problems involving heterogeneous winter maintenance fleets.
The main goal of this text is to introduce the systems approach to disasters management community as an alternative approach that can provide support for interdisciplinary activities involved in the management of disasters. The systems approach draws on the fields of operations research and economics to create skills in solving complex management problems. The text is organized into four parts. Part I provides an introductory discussion of disaster management including an overview of the main terms used. Part II is devoted to the introduction of systems theory, mathematical formalization and classification of methods. The material presented in this section should be of practical relevance during the process of selecting an appropriate tool for the solution of a problem. Part III is technical in nature, providing a simulation approach and a detailed description of system dynamics simulation. This section details two areas of application: flood evacuation simulation, and disaster risk assessment. Part IV ends with a chapter covering steps to improve disaster management. Finally parts of the book can be used as a tool for specialized short courses for practitioners. For example a course on 'System analysis for emergency management optimization' could be based on Chapters 3, 4 and parts of Chapter 6. Included in the book is a CD with three computer programs Vensim PLE, LINPRO, and COMPRO. Vensim PLE (Personal Learning Edition) is state-of-the-art simulation software used for the implementation of system dynamics simulation. The other two programs are: LINPRO, a linear programming optimization tool; and COMPRO, for the implementation of the multi-objective analysis tool of compromise programming.
