I must say that when someone has worked really hard on the editing of a journal, it is gratifying when that work is acknowledged in a meaningful and substantive way.
We heard from the Editor of the journal, International Transactions in Operational Research (ITOR), Dr. Celso Ribeiro, that ISI (Web of Knowledge) has accepted International Transactions in Operational Research into the SSCI, the SCIE, Current Contents: Engineering, Computing and Technology, and Current Contents: Social and Behavioural Science with coverage from the 2009 volume. The journal should receive its first Impact Factor in the 2011 JCR, released next year.
ITOR is published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of IFORS, the International Federation of Operational Research Societies.
Mike Trick wrote an informative post on this news in which he congratulates Celso on this achievement and I fully concur. As an Associate Editor of this journal, I can attest to the hours that Celso spends communicating even on weekends to make sure that the papers are handled in a professional and timely manner.
Great job by a terrific editor and also a wonderful group of fellow Associate Editors.
Showing posts with label environmental impact assessment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label environmental impact assessment. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Friday, April 2, 2010
Our Fractured Roads and Pollution -- When is a Network Robust?
As one drives over the roads in Amherst and surrounding towns in western Massachusetts, one can't fail to painfully feel the bumps and potholes, and hope that one reaches one's destination without getting whiplash and one's car is still functional. It is embarrassing that in the "richest" country in the world that we do not maintain our infrastructure appropriately. Not only does this lack of maintenance result in costly repairs on the backs of citizens, but it also results in increased pollution emissions.
In a study, just published and entitled, Environmental Impact Assessment of Transportation Networks with Degradable Links in an Era of Climate Change that I wrote with Drs. Qiang Qiang and Ladimer Nagurney, in the International Journal of Sustainable Transportation 4 (2010) pp 154-171, we were able to capture the effects of transportation network infrastructure degradation on the pollution emitted in the form of carbon emissions. In addition, we constructed link importance indicators that enable the ranking of links (under either user-optimizing (U-O) selfish behavior or system-optimizing (S-O) unselfish behavior) in terms of the impacts of their degradation and even their ultimate destruction. As is evident from recent disasters such as earthquakes and floods, such quantitative measures are more than timely and relevant.
With this paper, we hope to promote a new research agenda into the determination of quantitative measures associated with transportation networks, environmental vulnerability and robustness analysis, and climate change. Moreover, planners and policy makers need to be able to rigorously assess which links (and nodes) in transportation networks from congested urban ones to freight ones should be carefully maintained and invested in. Otherwise, we will be living and trying to be mobile in a Fractured Fairy Tale.
In a study, just published and entitled, Environmental Impact Assessment of Transportation Networks with Degradable Links in an Era of Climate Change that I wrote with Drs. Qiang Qiang and Ladimer Nagurney, in the International Journal of Sustainable Transportation 4 (2010) pp 154-171, we were able to capture the effects of transportation network infrastructure degradation on the pollution emitted in the form of carbon emissions. In addition, we constructed link importance indicators that enable the ranking of links (under either user-optimizing (U-O) selfish behavior or system-optimizing (S-O) unselfish behavior) in terms of the impacts of their degradation and even their ultimate destruction. As is evident from recent disasters such as earthquakes and floods, such quantitative measures are more than timely and relevant.
With this paper, we hope to promote a new research agenda into the determination of quantitative measures associated with transportation networks, environmental vulnerability and robustness analysis, and climate change. Moreover, planners and policy makers need to be able to rigorously assess which links (and nodes) in transportation networks from congested urban ones to freight ones should be carefully maintained and invested in. Otherwise, we will be living and trying to be mobile in a Fractured Fairy Tale.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Transportation Network Robustness in an Era of Climate Change
There has been a lot of press lately, and justifiably so, on the recent multiday closure of the San Francisco Bay Bridge and the Lake Champlain Bridge (it looks as though this one will be permanently closed). Closures of such critical transportation links have played havoc on commuting times as well as on the local economies that they connected and bridged.
There has been little attention, however, given to the impact of the deteriorating transportation infrastructure on the environment.
Our paper, Environmental Impact Assessment of Transportation Networks with Degradable Links in an Era of Climate Change, which is the lead article in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Sustainable Transportation, provides quantitative measures to assess the impact on the environment of transportation infrastructure deterioration. It provides environmental impact assessment indices under alternative travel behavior (either system-optimal or user-optimal) and quantifies the environmental robustness of a transportation network subject to the deterioration of the roads, including their outright removal (as in the case of bridge closures or collapses).
The paper also demonstrates that travel behavior must be included in environmental assessments of transportation network robustness and the environmental impacts. In addition, and this is quite interesting, we demonstrate that system-optimizing behavior does not necessarily lead to reduced environmental emissions! Indeed, in certain networks, letting travelers behave selfishly and letting them determine their optimal routes of travel individually with no concern for negative externalities results in lower emissions than when a central controller routes traffic so as to minimize the total travel time!
Transportation networks are simply fascinating and counterintuitive phenomena associated with them from the Braess paradox on continue to provide important subjects for research, education, and, of course, practice.
There has been little attention, however, given to the impact of the deteriorating transportation infrastructure on the environment.
Our paper, Environmental Impact Assessment of Transportation Networks with Degradable Links in an Era of Climate Change, which is the lead article in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Sustainable Transportation, provides quantitative measures to assess the impact on the environment of transportation infrastructure deterioration. It provides environmental impact assessment indices under alternative travel behavior (either system-optimal or user-optimal) and quantifies the environmental robustness of a transportation network subject to the deterioration of the roads, including their outright removal (as in the case of bridge closures or collapses).
The paper also demonstrates that travel behavior must be included in environmental assessments of transportation network robustness and the environmental impacts. In addition, and this is quite interesting, we demonstrate that system-optimizing behavior does not necessarily lead to reduced environmental emissions! Indeed, in certain networks, letting travelers behave selfishly and letting them determine their optimal routes of travel individually with no concern for negative externalities results in lower emissions than when a central controller routes traffic so as to minimize the total travel time!
Transportation networks are simply fascinating and counterintuitive phenomena associated with them from the Braess paradox on continue to provide important subjects for research, education, and, of course, practice.
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