Reconstruction of the Aceh Region following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami disaster: A transportation perspective

Aceh, located in the northernmost area of Sumatra Island, is one of the regions that suffered the most damage from the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. The process of reconstruction after a large-scale disaster is considered an opportunity to create a safer society, especially for developing countries, however the accumulation of knowledge about how to improve reconstruction is insufficient. The affected areas have diverse social and economic characteristics and unprecedented restoration efforts have been made. The Indian Ocean tsunami disaster, therefore, provides numerous research opportunities, and many surveys and other researches have been conducted to better understand what happened and how the reconstruction process could be improved. However, the majority of such research has focused on housing reconstruction, rebuilding livelihoods and community rehabilitation and there has been only limited research on transportation-related issues. Thus, there is significance in evaluating the reconstruction of Aceh from a transportation perspective, a dimension that has yet to be examined systematically. As a first step in the effort to evaluate various aspects of the reconstruction of Aceh from a transportation perspective, this research aims to present three transportation-related issues within the reconstruction process—1) the road network in the Banda Aceh coastal area, 2) mobility in relocation sites, and 3) reconstruction of the Banda Aceh–Meulaboh road—and to conduct a preliminary analysis of these issues by adding the viewpoint of disaster management and reconstruction, the authors' area of specialization. For conducting a preliminary analysis, existing information such as research papers, articles and reports and data collected through interviews and field reconnaissance conducted by the authors were utilized as much as possible, and such “qualitative data” was analyzed by applying the “interpretive approach”, considered an appropriate analytical framework for qualitative data.     

Reducing average comprehensive travel cost by rationally allocating trips to different travel modes

To study the effect of different transport policies on reducing the average comprehensive travel cost (CTC) of all travel modes, by increasing public transport modal share and decreasing car trips, an optimization model is developed based on travel cost utility. A nested logit model is applied to analyze trip modal split. A Genetic Algorithm is then used to determine the implementation of optimal solutions in which various transport policies are applied in order to reduce average CTC. The central urban region of Beijing is selected as the study area in this research. Different policies are analyzed for comparison, focusing on their optimal impacts on minimizing the average CTC utility of all travel modes by rationally allocating trips to different travel modes in the study area. It is found that the proposed optimization model provides a reasonable indication of the effect of policies applied.     

Wave responses of a coastal cargo ship consisting of unit modules

This article discusses the dynamic responses of a coastal cargo ship that consists of unit modules with advance forward speed in waves. We introduce a simple way of connecting the modules that has enough capability to link the modular parts of the ship as a unified whole. The flexible connection consists of male and female rubber fenders with additional pretensioned ropes. This kind of connection system is proposed for use in coastal regions with relatively calm waters wherein the modular ship can move at a moderate speed. The modules are assumed to be rigid compared to the connections. Computations were performed to investigate the vertical elastic responses of four modules connected end-to-end with the assumption that in the simple hinge, no gaps occur in the flexible rubber connections between adjacent modules. A simple method, which is an extension of the computational analysis we reported previously, is presented to study the hydroelasticity and rope tension forces of the modular ship with forward speed in waves. Experiments with a three-dimensional model at Froude numbers of 0 and 0.16 in head waves were performed to evaluate the effectiveness of the calculation method. In the experiments, deflections for each part were measured using calibrated potentiometers. Force transducers were used to measure the rope tension force between the modules of the articulated cargo ship. Some slight differences were observed, but generally the calculated results showed the same trends as the experimental values.     

Evaluation of preview G-Vectoring control to decelerate a vehicle prior to entry into a curve

This paper describes the development of the braking assistance system based on a “G-Vectoring” concept. The present work focuses in particular on “Preview G-Vectoring Control” (PGVC), which is based on the “G-Vectoring Control” (GVC) scheme. In GVC, the longitudinal-acceleration control algorithm is based on the actual lateral jerk. PGVC decelerates a vehicle before it enters a curve, and is based on a new longitudinal-acceleration control algorithm which uses predicted and actual lateral jerk. Using the predicted lateral jerk makes it possible to decelerate the vehicle prior to curve entry. This deceleration can emulate a driver’s deceleration as the vehicle approaches a curve entry. PGVC is based on such deceleration algorithms and enables automatic deceleration similar to the action of a driver. It is thus possible to significantly improve the driver’s feeling when this system is activated. Driving tests with this new control system on snowy-winding course confirmed that the automatic brake control quality improved considerably compared to manual driver control considering both lap time and ride quality. These results indicate that PGVC can be a useful braking assistance system not only to improve the driver’s handling performance but also to reduce the brake-task during driving on winding roads.