TRAFFIC SIMULATION MODEL FOR PORT PLANNING AND CONGESTION PREVENTION

Effective management of land-side transportation provides the competitive advantage to port terminal operators in improving services and efficient use of limited space in an urban port. We present a hybrid simulation model that combines traffic-flow modeling and discrete-event simulation for land-side port planning and evaluation of traffic conditions for a number of what-if scenarios. We design our model based on a real-world case of a bulk cargo port. The problem is interesting due to complexity of heterogeneous closed-looped internal vehicles and external vehicles traveling in spaces with very limited traffic regulation ( no traffic lights, no traffic wardens) and the traffic interactions with port operations such as loading and unloading cargos. Our simulation results show interesting decision-support scenarios for decision makers to evaluate future port planning possibilities and to derive regulation policies governing the port traffic.