Analyzing Vulnerabilities in the Northwest Arkansas Highway Network Using Mathematical Optimization

Author

Brandon JeromeFollow

Date of Graduation

5-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Industrial Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Sullivan, Kelly

Committee Member/Reader

Rainwater, Chase

Abstract

The highway and bridge network is a critical infrastructure that allows for the free transportation of citizens and enables truck-borne freight transportation. Disruption of this system could be caused by a terrorist attack, natural disaster, growth of population, required repairs and upgrades, or collapse caused by old age or malfunction. In the event of a disruption cities and regions can experience increased traffic and supply chain shortages, thus causing cascading effects throughout surrounding areas. With this motivation, we develop a network interdiction optimization model to identify a limited subset of roads that, if disrupted, causes the greatest increase in the weighted sum of shortest path distances associated with a collection of origin-destination pairs. We apply the model to perform a vulnerability analysis on the network consisting of interstate highways, U.S. highways, and state highways in Northwest Arkansas.

Keywords

Northwest Arkansas, highway, bridges, critical infrastructure, vulnerability analysis

Citation

Jerome, B. (2022). Analyzing Vulnerabilities in the Northwest Arkansas Highway Network Using Mathematical Optimization. Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/ineguht/81