We develop a detailed, large-scale, airspace planning and collaborative decision-making model (APCDM), that is part of an $11.5B, 10-year, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-sponsored effort to increase U.S. National Airspace (NAS) capacity by 30 percent. Given a set of flights that must be scheduled during some planning horizon, we use a mixed-integer programming formulation to select a set of flight plans from among alternatives subject to flight safety, air traffic control workload, and airline equity constraints. Novel contributions of this research include three-dimensional probabilistic conflict analyses, the derivation of valid inequalities to tighten the conflict safety representation constraints, the development of workload metrics based on average (and its variance from) peak load measures, and the consideration of equity among airline carriers in absorbing the costs related to re-routing, delays, and cancellations. We also propose an improved set of flight plan cost factors for representing system costs and investigating fairness issues by addressing flight dependencies occurring in hubbed operations, as well as market factors such as schedule convenience, reliability, and the timeliness of connections. The APCDM model has potential use for both tactical and strategic applications, such as air traffic control in response to severe weather phenomenon or spacecraft launches, FAA policy evaluation, Homeland Defense contingency planning, and military air campaign planning. The model is tested to consider various airspace restriction scenarios imposed by dynamic severe weather systems and space launch Special Use Airspace (SUA) impositions. The results from this model can also serve to augment the FAA's National Playbook of standardized flight profiles in different disruption-prone regions of the National Airspace. / Ph. D.

La simulation est de plus en plus utilisée dans les études de conception et d’organisation des systèmes complexes. Une étude par optimisation via simulation permet d’optimiser les paramètres d’un système afin d’obtenir les meilleures performances, estimés par la simulation. Toutefois, dans de nombreux systèmes complexes, certaines données sont incertaines (par exemple, les conditions opératoires du système ou le comportement des décideurs). En conséquence, même lorsque l’étude d’optimisation via simulation est réalisée avec le plus grand soin, les solutions obtenues peuvent se révéler inadaptées. Dans ce contexte, notre objectif est d’étudier comment optimiser, via simulation, un système afin qu’il continue d’être performant et robuste. L’étude bibliographique approfondie que nous avons menée montre que très peu de travaux en optimisation via simulation intègrent l’incertain et qu’ils peuvent être très limités dans leur capacité à fournir des solutions robustes en un temps de calcul raisonnable en particulier lorsque des métaheuristiques sont employées. Par ailleurs, la plupart des travaux existants délivrent une solution unique de conception performante du système et ne sont pas adaptés pour prendre en compte les aspects collaboratifs (groupe de décideurs). C’est pourquoi, nous avons proposé une approche originale connectant une recherche des solutions par optimisation évolutionniste multimodale et une évaluation des performances du système via simulation. Notre approche va permettre de fournir plusieurs alternatives performantes de conception d’un système et assez diversifiées pour acquérir aux décideurs une flexibilité dans le choix de la solution à implanter. De plus, nous avons exploité cette flexibilité pour intégrer, d’une part, les préférences individuelles des membres d’une équipe décisionnelle et, d’autre part, la présence de plusieurs environnements pour étudier la robustesse des solutions en un temps de traitement raisonnable par rapport à d’autres approches utilisant des méta heuristiques. Les approches proposées sont illustrées par l’optimisation d’une maille de supply chain. Grâce à cette application, nous avons montré qu’en plus de fournir un choix de solutions performantes pour dimensionner le système, nous pouvons proposer des solutions « collectivement acceptable » pour l’équipe décisionnelle et déterminer des solutions de conception robustes du système. Ces approches fournissent ainsi une flexibilité pour la phase de décision et contribuent à la prise en compte de l’incertitude dans l’optimisation via simulation d’un système. / Simulation is more and more used in studies of design and organization of complex systems. A simulation optimization study search for the system parameters that yield the best performance. However, in many complex systems, data can be uncertain (e.g., the operating conditions of the system or the behavior of decision makers). Therefore, even when the simulation optimization study is performed with the greatest care, the solutions may be inadequate. In this context, our goal is to study how to optimize, via simulation, a robust system. The extensive literature review we conducted shows that few simulation optimization approaches incorporate uncertainty and they can be very limited in their ability to provide robust solutions in a reasonable processing time, especially when metaheuristics are used. In addition, most existing approaches provide a single solution to the design problem and are not adapted to take into account the collaborative aspects (decision maker’s team). Therefore, we propose a novel approach connecting a search for solutions by evolutionary multimodal optimization and the evaluation of the system performance by simulation. Our approach allows to obtain a diverse set of designs that can be considered as efficient in terms of their performance and to provide decision-Makers with flexibility in the choice of the solution to implement. In addition, we use this flexibility to integrate first, the individual preferences of the members of decision maker’s team and secondly, the presence of multiple environments For studying the robustness of solutions in a reasonable processing time compared to other approaches based on metaheuristics. The proposed approaches are illustrated with an example of supply chain. With this application, we have shown that in addition to providing a choice of efficient solutions for sizing the system, we propose "collectively acceptable" solutions to the decision-Making team and we identify robust solutions. Then, these approaches provide flexibility to the decision phase and contribute to the consideration of uncertainty in the simulation optimization of the system.

The aim of the study was to investigate the training of school governing bodies in the Free State Province from an education management point of view. Since 1994 the South African government has adopted a number of policy documents aimed at democratizing education in the country. The transformation of education in the new South African context encompasses the idea of partnership in which participants - such as parents, educators, learners (in secondary schools) play an active role in taking decisions on behalf of the school. The State alone cannot control schools, but has to share its power with other stakeholders. However, this can only happen if participants in school governance are trained to have power and the capacity to decide on matters affecting their schools. Hence, training is the cornerstone of affirming governors in the execution of their roles and responsibilities. Since school governing bodies are composed of a cross section of people with different ideologies, expectations and levels of education - training is necessary to prepare then for co-operative governance. Without adequate and on-going in-service training, it is unlikely that school governing body members can make informed decisions. The empirical method, namely qualitative research, was successful in obtaining information from participants about the training offered to them. It also established how participants felt and thought about their experiences and perceptions about the training they received, whether it built capacity or not. A number of recommendations were made with regard to the research findings for stakeholders to note. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Comparative Education)

Air traffic flow management is a critical component of air transport operations because at some point in time, often very frequently, one of more of the critical resources in the air transportation network has significantly reduced capacity, resulting in congestion and delay for airlines and other entities and individuals who use the network. Typically, these “bottlenecks” are noticed at a given airport or terminal area, but they also occur in en route airspace. The two-stage combinatorial optimization framework for air traffic flow management under constrained capacity that is presented in this thesis, represents a important step towards the full consideration of the combinatorial nature of air traffic flow management decision that is often ignored or dealt with via priority-based schemes. It also illustrates the similarities between two traffic flow management problems that heretofore were considered to be quite distinct. The runway systems at major airports are highly constrained resources. From the perspective of arrivals, unnecessary delays and emissions may occur during peak periods when one or more runways at an airport are in great demand while other runways at the same airport are operating under their capacity. The primary cause of this imbalance in runway utilization is that the traffic flow into and out of the terminal areas is asymmetric (as a result of airline scheduling practices), and arrivals are typically assigned to the runway nearest the fix through which they enter the terminal areas. From the perspective of departures, delays and emissions occur because arrivals take precedence over departures with regard to the utilization of runways (despite the absence of binding safety constraints), and because arrival trajectories often include level segments that ensure “procedural separation” from arriving traffic while planes are not allowed to climb unrestricted along the most direct path to their destination. Similar to the runway systems, the terminal radar approach control facilities (TRACON) boundary fixes are also constrained resources of the terminal airspace. Because some arrival traffic from different airports merges at an arrival fix, a queue for the terminal areas generally starts to form at the arrival fix, which are caused by delays due to heavy arriving traffic streams. The arrivals must then absorb these delays by path stretching and adjusting their speed, resulting in unplanned fuel consumption. However, these delays are often not distributed evenly. As a result, some arrival fixes experience severe delays while, similar to the runway systems, the other arrival fixes might experience no delays at all. The goal of this thesis is to develop a combined optimization approach for terminal airspace flow management that assigns a TRACON boundary fix and a runway to each flight while minimizing the required fuel burn and emissions. The approach lessens the severity of terminal capacity shortage caused by and imbalance of traffic demand by shunting flights from current positions to alternate runways. This is done by considering every possible path combination. To attempt to solve the congestion of the terminal airspace at both runways and arrival fixes, this research focuses on two sequential optimizations. The fix assignments are dealt with by considering, simultaneously, the capacity constraints of fixes and runways as well as the fuel consumption and emissions of each flight. The research also develops runway assignments with runway scheduling such that the total emissions produced in the terminal area and on the airport surface are minimized. The two-stage sequential framework is also extended to en route airspace. When en route airspace loses its capacity for any reason, e.g. severe weather condition, air traffic controllers and flight operators plan flight schedules together based on the given capacity limit, thereby maximizing en route throughput and minimizing flight operators' costs. However, the current methods have limitations due to the lacks of consideration of the combinatorial nature of air traffic flow management decision. One of the initial attempts to overcome these limitations is the Collaborative Trajectory Options Program (CTOP), which will be initiated soon by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The developed two-stage combinatorial optimization framework fits this CTOP perfectly from the flight operator's perspective. The first stage is used to find an optimal slot allocation for flights under satisfying the ration by schedule (RBS) algorithm of the FAA. To solve the formulated first stage problem efficiently, two different solution methodologies, a heuristic algorithm and a modified branch and bound algorithm, are presented. Then, flights are assigned to the resulting optimized slots in the second stage so as to minimize the flight operator's costs.

The aim of the study was to investigate the training of school governing bodies in the Free State Province from an education management point of view. Since 1994 the South African government has adopted a number of policy documents aimed at democratizing education in the country. The transformation of education in the new South African context encompasses the idea of partnership in which participants - such as parents, educators, learners (in secondary schools) play an active role in taking decisions on behalf of the school. The State alone cannot control schools, but has to share its power with other stakeholders. However, this can only happen if participants in school governance are trained to have power and the capacity to decide on matters affecting their schools. Hence, training is the cornerstone of affirming governors in the execution of their roles and responsibilities. Since school governing bodies are composed of a cross section of people with different ideologies, expectations and levels of education - training is necessary to prepare then for co-operative governance. Without adequate and on-going in-service training, it is unlikely that school governing body members can make informed decisions. The empirical method, namely qualitative research, was successful in obtaining information from participants about the training offered to them. It also established how participants felt and thought about their experiences and perceptions about the training they received, whether it built capacity or not. A number of recommendations were made with regard to the research findings for stakeholders to note. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Comparative Education)