Transportation researchers at the U of A are working to develop a national decision-support system to help local, state and federal law-enforcement and emergency-management agencies identify commercially important rivers and infrastructure that may be especially vulnerable to a terrorist attack or natural disaster.
The United States has approximately 12,000 navigable miles of commercially used rivers that may be vulnerable to attack, natural disaster or accidental events. The loss of these waterways and related infrastructure, such as bridges, canal locks and pipelines, would have immediate and adverse social and economic impacts on a region or possibly the entire nation.
With $200,000 in initial funding from Homeland Security, researchers are developing a system that they hope will evolve into a prototype for the decision-support system. The project includes geospatial data, computer-based cargo prioritization and freight-routing models, and an emergency response model for inland waterway transportation systems.