Should I Stay or Should I Go? Assessing Intermodal and Synchromodal Resilience from a Decentralized Perspective
1
MOBI Research Centre, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
2
Logistics Research Group, Hasselt University, Agoralaan, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium
3
Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), Egmontstraat 5, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2019, 11(6), 1765; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11061765
Received: 19 February 2019 / Revised: 18 March 2019 / Accepted: 20 March 2019 / Published: 23 March 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Intermodal Transportation and Sustainable Mobility)
Synchromodal transport incorporates real-time events in a dynamic manner in order to facilitate the most suitable selection of modes, routes and handling points. Up until now, current assessments rely on analytical models. Most of these models average distances for barges and trains via route mapping platforms that provide realistic distances for road only. To reflect on real-world developments more accurately, new thinking and modelling approaches are necessary to bridge academic models with physical transport processes. This paper introduces a computational model which computes movements of agents in geographically referenced space. The model captures stochastic parallel processes for each mode, and simulates decentralized delivery performance of each order in terms of cost, time and emissions at an operational level. Furthermore, we study the routing of individual orders and their responsiveness to disruptions. Computational experiments are performed within a case study which concerns imports of retail goods by unimodal truck transport from France to Belgium. Our findings show that dynamic synchromodal solutions cope with disturbances better, but unnecessary deviations and pro-activeness can also lead to negative effects when compared to static intermodal solutions
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Keywords:
synchromodal transport; intermodal transport; geographic information systems; agent-based modelling; simulation; disruption; resilience
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MDPI and ACS Style
Ambra, T.; Caris, A.; Macharis, C. Should I Stay or Should I Go? Assessing Intermodal and Synchromodal Resilience from a Decentralized Perspective. Sustainability 2019, 11, 1765. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11061765
AMA Style
Ambra T, Caris A, Macharis C. Should I Stay or Should I Go? Assessing Intermodal and Synchromodal Resilience from a Decentralized Perspective. Sustainability. 2019; 11(6):1765. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11061765
Chicago/Turabian StyleAmbra, Tomas, An Caris, and Cathy Macharis. 2019. "Should I Stay or Should I Go? Assessing Intermodal and Synchromodal Resilience from a Decentralized Perspective" Sustainability 11, no. 6: 1765. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11061765
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