Transportation readiness assessment and valuation for emergency logistics

Unique characteristics exist in transportation networks including open infrastructure, widely dispersed populations, and diverse geographic areas. Exploring transportation emergency preparedness is important because these networks are essential for transporting freight and linking residents with essential services. This research investigates the disaster relief and recovery needs of communities and provides a scorecard for evaluating transportation-related emergency preparedness for these communities. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's Comprehensive Preparedness Guide 101 is a vital source used by state and local officials to develop emergency operations plans. This guide is used as the basis for developing the Transportation Readiness Assessment and Valuation for Emergency Logistics (TRAVEL). TRAVEL is a scorecard based on Value-Focused Thinking principles that evaluates transportation readiness in emergency operations planning. An application of TRAVEL to three county-level emergency operations plans is provided to demonstrate the use of TRAVEL in a real world plan assessment scenario.