Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S. in Engineering Science

Department

Civil Engineering

First Advisor

Waheed Uddin

Second Advisor

Tyrus McCarty

Third Advisor

Yacoub Najjar

Relational Format

dissertation/thesis

Abstract

This research included shipping demand modeling, infrastructure asset mapping, and impacts of carbon dioxide (co2) emission. The current volume of imports and exports was reviefor U.S. ports in the east coast, gulf coast, and west coast regions. The import and export of goods is a major part of the U.S. economy, and the volume of cargo handled by U.S. ports is expected to increase in the future as population increases. The major motivation for this thesis was the need for U.S. ports to make plans now to accommodate this expected growth in volume. Ports distribute commodities throughout the U.S., and every state would be adversely affected if improvements are not made to the capacity and infrastructure of U.S. ports. The goals were to: identify an efficient tool for assisting with the analysis of a port's current infrastructure to help with planning for future needs, use a tool to assist with developing alternative shipping routes as needed, and to analyze intermodal integration scenarios to reduce the amount of co2 emissions resulting from the rising volume of shipping. The primary objectives were to: (1) review cargo shipping demand for twenty foot equivalent unit (teu) data at selected larger ports in the U.S. and distribution to states, develop statistical demand models, and predict the teu demand data for future 5, 10, 15, and 20 years, (2) create spatial maps of infrastructure and landuse planimetrics of landsat-8 satellite imagery scenes for selected sites, (3) evaluate the accuracy and efficiency of the calibrated built-up area and natural surfaces (bans) classification of infrastructure features and landuse, (4) estimate cargo shipping volumes using automatic identification system (ais) for selected shipping routes and calculate related co2 emissions and their impacts. Case studies involving spatial mapping of selected sites and a comparison of the planimetrics and calibrated bans classification were used to determine an efficient method for mapping the assets of a port's existing infrastructure and landuse. The ais data for selected shipping routes were used through ship counts over a 24-hour period to analyze this data for mapping shipping routes. Geospatial analysis was also performed using a sample shipping route to calculate the amount of co2 emitted by a cargo vessel and to make recommendations for the reduction of these emissions. The spatial mapping case studies conducted for the selected areas of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the port of Gulfport, and Oxford, MS shothat the calibrated surface classification using multispectral satellite imagery would be more efficient than the manual planimetrics for mapping current infrastructure features and landuse. Global shipping is a major contributor to co2 emissions. This is illustrated by a case study for calculating 5,174 tons of co2 emissions for a cargo vessel traveling from New York to France. Bigger vessels help to reduce the global co2 concentration.

Concentration/Emphasis

Emphasis: Civil Engineering

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