Budget Allocation for Dredging Projects Selection to Maximize the Waterway System Capacity Improvement

摘要

This paper concerns budget allocation to dredging projects at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.Among a large number of projects requested, only a subset may be selected for funding. Thebenefit of one dredging project depends on other projects in order to maintain the systemcarrying capacity; thereby selecting a number of ports among all potentials should be consideredas an interdependent problem. This paper proposes integer programming models and solutionalgorithms to select dredging projects to fund. The models consider the waterway networktopology to improve the overall system capacity. The solution algorithms ensure efficientcomputational performance and quality of solutions. The models and algorithms are tested withthe Great Lakes region and inland waterways data and are shown to significantly improve on thecurrent practices, especially when the budget becomes tight.