abstract / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Over the last thirty years, intermodal freight transportation has been a constantly expanding sector. The vast increase of freight volumes contributes to the increase of various issues in the freight corridors as well as the urban environment. The deterioration of congestion in the urban environment and the increase on freight movements on the highways have resulted in the increase of emissions. For this reason, new policies and regulations are put forth to address the environmental effects of freight transportation. This study deals with the intermodal freight network design problem from the shipping company's perspective, aiming to simultaneously minimize emission levels and cost of freight transportation. We propose a mathematical model for optimizing the design of an intermodal freight network and the location of intermodal hubs between the origins and the destinations, under delivery time constraints. The goal is to identify the mode choice patterns considering transport cost and emissions, and the effects of new emission regulations on network costs. We consider a network with marine terminals as the origins, inland intermodal terminals as the hubs, and fulfillment centers as the destinations. Numerical experiments highlight that the proposed model can provide useful insights to the shipper. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection