Inland Waterway Operational Model & Simulation Along the Ohio River

Abstract

The purpose of this report is to 1) develop a comprehensive profile of the Ohio River that provides an overview of how it is integral to U.S. economic security 2) identify salient river characteristics or externally-driven variables that influence the amount of water flowing through the main channel which consequently impacts vessels' capacity to navigate 3) use this information (along with a 10-year data set encompassing over 600,000 observations) to develop an inland Waterway Operational Model (IWOM). The IWOM objective is to provide the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, shippers, carriers, and other interested parties with access to a robust method that aids in the prediction of where and when conditions will arise on the river that have the potential to significantly impact lockage times and queue times (i.e. how long a vessel has to wait after it arrives at a facility to lock through). After qualitatively reviewing different features of the river system that affect vessel traffic, this report outlines two approaches to modeling inland waterway system behavior – a discrete event simulation (DES) model which uses proprietary software, and the IWOM. Once completed, the IWOM was used to parameterize a simulation model. This provided a graphical representation of vessels moving along the river. This information will be of great use for stakeholders wanting to gain a better understanding of what conditions lockage times will increase or decrease, why delays emerge, and consequently how these impact traffic flows on the river.