Trade-Off Analysis Methodology for Asset Management
Trade-Off Analysis Methodology for Asset Management

Author: Qiang Bai

Publisher: Purdue University Press

Published: 2008-12-01

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 9781622601110

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In an era characterized by funding limitations, increased stakeholder participation, and the need for increased accountability and transparency, transportation agencies seek to ensure that comprehensive evaluation processes are identified and used for decision-making. Consistent with such processes is the incorporation of multiple performance criteria from different program areas, optimization of decisions under constrained budgets, and investigation of trade-offs between program areas, performance measures, budgetary levels, risk levels, and performance thresholds. To help INDOT carry out these processes, this study developed theoretical constructs for scaling and amalgamation of the different performance measures, and for analyzing the different kinds of trade-offs. The scaling of performance measures yields a consistent or dimensionless unit to make them comparable. Amalgamation combines the weighted and scaled performance measures to yield a single utility value that represents the overall desirability of a candidate project. This report documents, with examples, a number of alternative methods for scaling and amalgamation. Also, recognizing that project outcomes are not always known with certainty, the analysis was done for the deterministic (certainty) as well as the probabilistic (uncertainty) scenarios. Finally, the report describes how INDOT can carry out an investigation of trade-offs such as changing the performance threshold and shifting budgets from one program area to another. To facilitate implementation, the report includes a set of spreadsheets that are based on hypothetical project data.

Multicriteria Multistakeholder Decision Analysis
Multicriteria Multistakeholder Decision Analysis

Author: Timothy Patton Doyle

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 231

ISBN-13:

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Due to their magnitude and longevity, transportation investments can determine the long term success or failure of a transportation system. Thus, it is vital for decision-makers to have deep understanding of the alternatives available before they chose to invest. In this thesis, we examine the current state of the practice for transportation investment decisions. We draw upon the literature and this existing state of the practice to develop a new decision aid which we believe is an improvement over existing aids. We then apply this new decision aid to a transportation investment decision facing the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and draw conclusions about the usefulness of our new tool. Our decision aid, the CLIOSjre Process, is designed to help decision-makers compare multiple alternatives and make an informed transportation investment decision. The process examines the decision from multiple perspectives where each of these perspectives represents one of the priorities of the decision-maker. By considering each priority separately, the CLIOSjre Process provides a detailed understanding of each alternative. The CLIOSjre Process also combines these individual evaluations into a single overall evaluation of each alternative. This overall evaluation provides the decision-maker with an actionable ranking of the alternatives. In combination, these perspective-specific and overall evaluations of each alternative provide a detailed and holistic understanding of the decision facing the decision-maker. Unlike many other decision aids, the CLIOSjre Process accounts for both the multistakeholder nature of transportation investments and the uncertainty inherent to these decisions. The multifaceted nature of the CLIOSjre Process examines each alternative from multiple perspectives. This approach better facilitates negotiation between stakeholders. In addition, the CLIOSjre Process formally identifies and addresses uncertainty in the analysis - the primary source of risk in transportation investment decisions. Thus, the CLIOSjre Process is a unique multicriteria, multistakeholder decision aid which addresses uncertainty. We hope that this thesis provides the reader with a better understanding of the application, challenges, and opportunities of multicriteria multistakeholder decision aids.

Updating, Upgrading, Refining, Calibration and Implementation of Trade-Off Analysis Methodology Developed for Indot
Updating, Upgrading, Refining, Calibration and Implementation of Trade-Off Analysis Methodology Developed for Indot

Author: Qiang Bai

Publisher: Joint Transportation Research Program

Published: 2012-12-31

Total Pages: 48

ISBN-13: 9781622602636

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As part of the ongoing evolution towards integrated highway asset management, the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT), through SPR studies in 2004 and 2010, sponsored research that developed an overall framework for asset management. This was intended to foster decision support for alternative investments across the program areas on the basis of a broad range of performance measures and against the background of the various alternative actions or spending amounts that could be applied to the several different asset types in the different program areas. The 2010 study also developed theoretical constructs for scaling and amalgamating the different performance measures, and for analyzing the different kinds of trade-offs. The research products from the present study include this technical report which shows how theoretical underpinnings of the methodology developed for INDOT in 2010 have been updated, upgraded, and refined. The report also includes a case study that shows how the trade-off analysis framework has been calibrated using available data. Supplemental to the report is Trade-IN Version 1.0, a set of flexible and easy-to-use spreadsheets that implement the trade-off framework. With this framework and using data at the current time or in the future, INDOT's asset managers are placed in a better position to quantify and comprehend the relationships between budget levels and system-wide performance, the relationships between different pairs of conflicting or non-conflicting performance measures under a given budget limit, and the consequences, in terms of system-wide performance, of funding shifts across the management systems or program areas.

Decision Making under Deep Uncertainty
Decision Making under Deep Uncertainty

Author: Vincent A. W. J. Marchau

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-04-04

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13: 3030052524

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This open access book focuses on both the theory and practice associated with the tools and approaches for decisionmaking in the face of deep uncertainty. It explores approaches and tools supporting the design of strategic plans under deep uncertainty, and their testing in the real world, including barriers and enablers for their use in practice. The book broadens traditional approaches and tools to include the analysis of actors and networks related to the problem at hand. It also shows how lessons learned in the application process can be used to improve the approaches and tools used in the design process. The book offers guidance in identifying and applying appropriate approaches and tools to design plans, as well as advice on implementing these plans in the real world. For decisionmakers and practitioners, the book includes realistic examples and practical guidelines that should help them understand what decisionmaking under deep uncertainty is and how it may be of assistance to them. Decision Making under Deep Uncertainty: From Theory to Practice is divided into four parts. Part I presents five approaches for designing strategic plans under deep uncertainty: Robust Decision Making, Dynamic Adaptive Planning, Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways, Info-Gap Decision Theory, and Engineering Options Analysis. Each approach is worked out in terms of its theoretical foundations, methodological steps to follow when using the approach, latest methodological insights, and challenges for improvement. In Part II, applications of each of these approaches are presented. Based on recent case studies, the practical implications of applying each approach are discussed in depth. Part III focuses on using the approaches and tools in real-world contexts, based on insights from real-world cases. Part IV contains conclusions and a synthesis of the lessons that can be drawn for designing, applying, and implementing strategic plans under deep uncertainty, as well as recommendations for future work. The publication of this book has been funded by the Radboud University, the RAND Corporation, Delft University of Technology, and Deltares.

Megacity Mobility
Megacity Mobility

Author: Zongzhi Li

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2021-12-14

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 1000518183

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World population growth and economic prosperity have given rise to ever-increasing demands on cities, transportation planning, and goods movement. This growth, coupled with a slower pace of transportation capacity expansion and deteriorated facility restoration, has led to rapid changes in the transportation planning and policy environment. These stresses are particularly acute for megacities where degradation of mobility and facility performance have reached alarming rates. Addressing these transportation challenges requires innovative solutions. Megacity Mobility grapples with these challenges by addressing transportation policy, planning, and facilities in a multimodal context. It discusses innovative short- and long-term solutions for meeting current and future mobility needs for the world’s most dynamic cities by addressing the influence of urban land use on mobility, 3D spiderweb transportation planning, travel demand management, multimodal transportation with flexible capacity, efficient capacity utilization driven by new technologies, innovative transportation funding and financing, and performance-based budget allocation using asset management principles. It discusses emerging issues, highlights potential challenges affecting proposed solutions, and provides policymakers, planners, and transportation professionals a road map to achieving sustainable mobility in the 21st century. Zongzhi Li is a professor and the director of the Sustainable Transportation and Infrastructure Research (STAIR) Center at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). Adrian T. Moore is vice president of policy at Reason Foundation in Washington, D.C., with focuses on privatization, transportation and urban growth, and more. Samuel R. Staley is the director of the DeVoe L. Moore Center in the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy at Florida State University.

The Evaluation of Transportation Investment Projects
The Evaluation of Transportation Investment Projects

Author: Joseph Berechman

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2010-05-26

Total Pages: 427

ISBN-13: 1135214085

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This book constructs a comprehensive and methodical economic, planning and decision-making framework for the evaluation of proposed transportation infrastructure investment projects, based on well-established theoretical principles.