Using Simulation Modeling to Evaluate Alternative Port Development Strategies

For more than two decades, the US Army Corps of Engineers has used simulation models to evaluate the efficiency of lock operations and navigational efficiency in inland navigation systems. The models and the underlying methodology have benefited from a high degree of academic and professional involvement in their development and application, and thus have gained a high degree of academic and professional acceptances. In 1998, the Corps adapted this methodology to simulate the interaction of vessels inside harbors as these vessels compete for the use of one-way traffic areas, berthing areas, and turning basins. The resulting model accounts for randomness in arrival patterns; time-of-day, day-of-week, and other seasonal arrival peaks; loading/unloading times; the need for tug assistance; transit speeds by reach; and a wide array of other operational conditions. The model uses estimates of the hourly cost of operating vessels and projections of future commodity traffic and vessel fleets to evaluate port development strategies on the basis of total in-harbor operating costs. In addition to total operating time and cost, other model outputs include detailed analyses of the components of these costs, and an animation feature that allows visual confirmation and explanation of the model's operation.