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The concept of a landbridge refers to different types of integrated origin-destination international movements of shipments (in various combinations of sea, land and air) under a single waybill. There are different examples of landbridges with different characteristics related to transport supply facilities, organisational structure and managerial skills. Certain limitations of existing landbridge studies are discussed. They include the failure of a comprehensive academic study to account jointly for both demand and supply of landbridge services. Most articles on landbridges discuss the Trans-Siberian Railway or east-west coast landbridges of the United States of America. No comprehensive academic studies of landbridges in general were found. The main features of the research can be summarised as: *A comprehensive review of literature related to landbridges * An investigation and analysis of Iranian transport supply and demand including both domestic and foreign trade. * An investigation and analysis of the demand of the Central Asian and Caucasus countries (Former USSR republics) for transport * The development of a demand and supply model related to an Iranian Sea-landbridge (ISLB) for eight Central Asian and Caucasus countries and Iran. * Evaluation of the impacts of demand on landbridge supply. *A comprehensive review of the scenario approach and its application to the Iranian Sea landbridge study using a regression technique. Three scenarios are developed (optimistic, most probable and pessimistic). The main result of the scenario modelling suggests that the transport system of Iran requires considerable improvement to compete effectively with other landbridges, given an increase in trade from Iran and the Central Asian and Caucasus countries.

The implementation of new public transport networks, such as the Gautrain, present new responsibilities and opportunities for urban development. Mega projects like these are constructed for various economical, social and political reasons. These underlying orders beg a necessary question when defining the architectural program required for the integration of the stations and there relative contexts. Integration is a key narrative for the exploration and enquiry of this thesis. The new Gautrain system should connect with existing and future transport systems, social systems and other contextual realities. Another question raised throughout the theoretical enquiry of this thesis is; to what extent does this connection and integration occur at the recently completed Gautrain stations? The idea of creating ‘Gateways’ into a city, rather than mere station ‘posts’ is explored as an architectural narrative. These ‘Gateways’ become the introductory point for commuters and an opportunity to create an experiential dimension relating to ‘the image of a city’ and its ‘zeitgeist’. Pretoria Station was chosen due the many layers of integration intrinsic to the site. This opportunity is available due to the existence of neo‐classical buildings within the immediate and macro context. Here the application of a contemporary, 21st century piece may create a representation of the progression of architectural and sociological thinking, relating to city building and transportation. This site also offers opportunities for exploring the integration of existing and future transport networks due to the existence of several of transport modes. Theories of city building and ‘placemaking’ are explored as a requirement borne out of the neglect for this site as it has developed through the modern era.

Cord-forming fungi form extensive networks that continuously adapt to maintain an efficient transport system, and we can photograph their growth, digitize the network structure, and measure the movement of radio-tracers. Mycelial networks are more accessible than the transport networks of other multicellular organisms, but there are many open questions concerning the coordination of growth and transport within fungal networks. As osmotically driven water uptake is often distal from the growing margin, and aqueous fluids are effectively incompressible, we propose that growth induces mass flows across the mycelium, towards the growing regions. We imaged the temporal evolution of networks formed by Phanerochaete velutina, and at each stage calculated the unique set of currents that account for the observed changes in cord volume, while minimizing the work required to overcome viscous drag. Predicted speeds were in reasonable agreement with experimental data, and cords that were predicted to carry large currents were significantly more likely to increase in size than cords with small currents. We have also developed an efficient method for calculating the exact quantity of resource in each part of an arbitrary network, where the resource is lost or delivered out of the network at a given rate, while being subject to advection and diffusion. This method enabled us to model the spatial distribution of resource that emerges as a fungal network grows over time, and we found good empirical agreement between our model and experimental data gathered using radio-labelled tracers. Our results suggest that in well insulated fungal networks, growth-induced mass flow is sufficient to account for long distance transport. We conclude that active transport mechanisms may only be required at the very end of the transport pathway, near the growing tips. We also developed a simple model of glucose delivery through vascular networks, which indicates that increasing the number of blood vessels in a region can actually decrease the total rate of glucose delivery.

This thesis focuses on three topics relevant to humanitarian applications: (i) stable and complete assignment of staff members to field offices, (ii) bottleneck management for transportation networks, and (iii) performance measurement of the food assistance supply chain. The assignment and reassignment of personnel to jobs is a large-scale problem faced by many organizations including the military and multi-national organizations. Although successful algorithms have been developed that can ensure matchings that are stable (without incentive to deviate), not all practical concerns have been addressed by these algorithms. For example, the gap we study is that when staff members do not provide preference lists covering all jobs, a complete stable matching is not guaranteed. In the first part of the thesis, we model negotiations, which occur in practice, as part of the problem of matching all agents. We introduce algorithms and structural results for when the organization negotiates with specific agents to modify their preference lists and the centralized objective is to minimize the number or cost of negotiations required to achieve complete stable matchings. An uncertain environment with disruptions is a reality faced by many humanitarian operations but not fully addressed in the literature. Transportation delays are often driven by reliability issues (e.g., customs delays, strikes, and the availability of transport), and the length of wait time can be influenced by congestion. In the second part of the thesis, we describe a queuing model with breakdowns to model delays in port and transportation corridors (the overland travel from discharge ports to delivery points). Using the model, we gain insights into where delays are most detrimental to system performance (i.e., the network's "bottleneck") in port and transportation corridors. We then include our delay modeling in a convex cost network flow model that determines optimal routing when several port and corridor options are available. Finally, we examine a resource allocation model for where to invest in improvements to minimize delay. Throughout, we compare solutions using the optimal approach to rules of thumb and identify important factors that might be missing in practical decision making currently. Third, we present a case study on the implementation of supply chain key performance indicators (KPIs) at a large humanitarian organization. We describe (i) the phases necessary for a full implementation of supply chain KPIs at a humanitarian or non-profit organization, (ii) how to address strategy, mindset, and organizational barriers, and (iii) how to adapt commercial supply chain KPI frameworks to the humanitarian sector, factoring in implementation constraints present in the humanitarian sector that may impact KPI development. Last, a conclusion chapter discusses areas where this research may or may not generalize for each of the three topics studied.

The World Trade Centre terror attack in 2001 changed the world and with it the conditions for logistics worldwide. The aftermath of the attack brought needed attention to the vulnerability of modern supply chains. This thesis addresses the antagonistic threats that exploit the vulnerability in a supply chain. Antagonistic threats are a limited array of risks and uncertainties and can be addressed with risk management tools and strategies. There are three key demarcations between antagonistic threats and other risks and uncertainties: deliberate (caused), illegal (defined by law), and hostile (negative impact, in this thesis, for transport network activities). This thesis makes a theoretical contribution to the usage of theories from criminology in supply chain risk management to handle antagonistic threats against the transport network. The recognition that antagonistic threats toward the transport network are a problem leads to verification of the research questions from the background and the theoretical framework. This is done to place or relate the research questions closer to the context. Furthermore, it leads to the conclusion that the answers may or may not contain competing and/or incompatible parts which differ depending on the perspective or viewpoint at the moment. One of the most important things to understand is that antagonistic threats toward freight always have been a feature in both business and politics. The different functions and goals for all stakeholders mean that all stakeholders and actors may use similar methods to manage antagonistic threats but the effects and consequences will change according to the circumstances.The system approach in this thesis is a soft-system thinking where reality is described in subjective terms and the whole system has the distinctive trait of vague or undefined boundaries between system components and the surrounding environment. Therefore, this thesis uses a complex system approach in which paradoxes and bounded rationality describes the system’s behaviour. This thesis defines the legal descriptions and criminal threats against and within supply chain management activities that entail both the systems context and boundaries. Managing of the antagonistic threats through the risk management perspective is separated into two sides, pre-event and post-event measures, which means the system needs to be robust and resilient, using logistics terms. It should be robust to automatically handle small risks (normally with high likelihood and low impact). The system also needs resilience in order to adapt, improvise, and overcome any disturbance greater than the system’s robustness can handle. Both robustness and its resilience can constitute of the full range of prevention, mitigation, and transferring tools and methods. Regardless of which perspective or viewpoint is chosen for analysing the problem, the same basic set of tools and methods are valid, but in practical use they need to be adapted to the actors’ needs and wants for managing their exposure to antagonistic threats. / <p>Thesis to be defended in public at 8 May 2009 at 13.00 in Vasa A, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy</p><p>Avhandlingen har tilldelats den prestigefyllda utmärkelsen ”The 2011 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards”. The thesis has been awarded with the prestigious honor of ”The 2011 Emerald/EFMD Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards”</p><p><b>Sponsorship</b>:</p><p>VINNOVA</p>

The World Trade Centre terror attack in 2001 changed the world and with it the conditions for logistics world-wide. The aftermath to the attack brought needed attention to the vulnerability of modern supply chains. This vulnerability can in many cases be described as “unwanted effects” in the supply chain, caused by either internal or external forces that create disturbances larger than the supply chain is designed to handle. The disturbance can be unintentional or deliberate and also either legal or illegal. This thesis addresses the problem of deliberately caused (antagonistic) and illegal action against legal logistics. There are basically two types of illegal and antagonistic threats to logistics, theft/sabotage and smuggling. The theft/sabotage problem is directly aimed toward the logistics activities, while smuggling abuses the logistics system for illegal purposes. The reasons behind these problems can vary from case to case as well as the different countermeasures to prevent these problems to occur. This thesis addresses only this problem in the transport network and sees the network as a part of a supply chain. In each part of the transport network there is a certain risk associated with the goods. All these risks together form the total risk for the transport or the transport network. The research in this thesis follows the tradition in logistics to use a system approach to treat the research questions. The system approach also implies a top-down perspective on the system, or in this case the two systems, but the research questions address only the cross-over points between the two systems. The main method for this thesis is deductive. Both primary and secondary data are used to support the deductive and theoretical conclusions. This thesis is also based on the result of five different studies within this topic. The perpetrators’ decision process is the key issue to understanding the usage of antagonistic gateways in the transport network. The preferred risk management approach is therefore contextual instead of statistic, when preventing the usage of antagonistic gateways. In other words, the countermeasures need to be based on an understanding of this decision process, the antagonistic dynamics of potential perpetrators. This understanding is to a large part also an understanding of the context in which the perpetrators act. The difference in perpetrator context is easily described with the difference between regular cargo thieves and ideology-driven perpetrators or terrorists. The thieves are after the monetary value that the cargo represents, therefore they prefer to steal high-value, untraceable and highly demanded products. The ideological perpetrator or terrorist wishes to make a statement with the attack, therefore he will sabotage products, which will give the statement attention and (if possible) understanding for it. If a potential terrorist desires to finance an upcoming terrorist attack by means of cargo theft, the perpetrator will act as a regular cargo thief. This difference in perpetrator context is vital for applying the right type of countermeasures in the transport network. Security against these types of antagonistic threats in the transport network aims to alter the contextual perception of the network and thereby reduce the problem of antagonistic gateways. / <p>PAPER A: Cargo theft from supply chains: Crime displacement in logistics, Daniel Ekwall. Earlier version presented at ASIS, Security Solutions for the Future Copenhagen 17-20 April 2005. Submitted to:</p><p>Supply Chain Management: An International Journal. PAPER B: Differences in Black and White Logistics System Design, Daniel Ekwall.</p><p>Submitted to: International Journal of Physical Distribution &amp; Logistics Management. PAPER C: The role of temporary storage in a supply chain perspective, Daniel Ekwall. Submitted to: The International Journal of Logistics Management. Licentiate seminar will be held at 1 p.m., 12 January, 2007</p><p>in lecture room M402, Allégatan 1, Borås,</p><p>for the degree of Licentiate of Engineering.</p>

Cette thèse s’ouvre sur l’analyse de l’évolution spatiale des flux du transport ferroviaire de marchandises dans les Pays d’Europe centrale et orientale (PECO), depuis la chute du mur de Berlin en 1989 à l’adhésion à l’Union européenne en 2004. Au cours d’un peu plus d’une décennie, de profondes mutations ont contribué à ouvrir les PECO à l’Union européenne. La chute du mur s’est accompa gnée de la recomposition des réseaux ferroviaires, structurés désormais par les frontières nationales. Alors même que la demande du transport évolue sous l’effet des échanges commerciaux dont la nature et les origines-destinations changent en profondeur et privilégient le transport routier, les chemins de fer doivent affronter d’autres facteurs d’incertitudes liés à la transition, telles que les réformes engagées par l’Etat dans le cadre des négotiations d’entrée des PECO à l’Union Européenne. Les chemins de fer réagissent pas la mise en place de stratégies de survie et parfois même de réhabilitation d’institutions de la période socialiste tombées en désuétude durant la première phase de la transition. Tout au long de la transition, les chemins de fer présentent une puissante force d’inertie aux changements, notamment au travers d’une forme d’adhérence du réseau d’infrastructure au territoire, tout en incarnant une forme de stabilité dans les périodes de mutations propres à la transition / This thesis begins with the analysis of the freight transportation flows in the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs), from 1989 up to membership of the European Union (EU) in 2004. During more than a decade, the CEECs have gone through deep political and macroeconomic structural changes that led to the opening up of the CEECs’ trade with the EU. The fall of the Berlin wall was followed by the reorientation and restructuring of the railway networks and services along the national borders, which are revealed by the freight flows. Although the transport demand changes as a result of the new trade exchanges, which give more importance to the road transport, railway networks are challenged by new factors of uncertainties generated by the transition process itself, such as the restructuring reforms initiated by CEECs’ governments, as part of the negotiations to enter the EU. Railways respond by implementing what is described as being surviv al strategies, and in some cases rehabilitate former socialist institutions that were actually abandoned in the early stage of the transition. Throughout the whole transition process, the railways demonstrate a strong capacity of inertia against change, whilst incarnating a needed form of stability during the periods of rapid and chaotic changes of transition

The emergence of collective patterns from repeated local interactions between individuals is a common feature to most living systems, spanning a variety of scales from cells to animals and humans. Subjects of this thesis are two aspects of emergent complexity in living systems: collective movement and transport network formation. For collective movement, this thesis studies the role of movement-mediated information transfer in fish decision-making. The second project on collective movement takes inspiration from granular media and soft mode analysis and develops a new approach to describe the emergence of collective phenomena from physical interactions in extremely dense crowds. As regards transport networks, this thesis proposes a model of network growth to extract simple, biologically plausible rules that reproduce topological properties of empirical ant trail networks.  In the second project on transport networks, this thesis starts from the simple rule of “connecting each new node to the closest one”, that describes ants building behavior, to study how balancing local building costs and global maintenance costs influences the growth and topological properties of transport networks. These projects are addressed through a modeling approach and with the aim of identifying minimal sets of basic mechanisms that are most likely responsible of large-scale complex patterns. Mathematical models are always based on empirical observations and are, when possible, compared to experimental data.

This thesis provides a `proof-of-concept' prototype and a design architecture for a Object Oriented (00) database towards the development of a Decision Support System (DSS) for the national freight transport planning problem. Both governments and industry require a Strategic Planning Extranet Decision Support System (SPEDSS) for their effective management of the national Freight Transport Networks (FTN). This thesis addresses the three key problems for the development of a SPEDSS to facilitate national strategic freight planning: 1) scope and scale of data available and required; 2) scope and scale of existing models; and 3) construction of the software. The research approach taken embodies systems thinking and includes the use of: Object Oriented Analysis and Design (OOA/D) for problem encapsulation and database design; artificial neural network (and proposed rule extraction) for knowledge acquisition of the United States FTN data set; and an iterative Object Oriented (00) software design for the development of a `proof-of-concept' prototype. The research findings demonstrate that an 00 approach along with the use of 00 methodologies and technologies coupled with artificial neural networks (ANNs) offers a robust and flexible methodology for the analysis of the FTN problem domain and the design architecture of an Extranet based SPEDSS. The objectives of this research were to: 1) identify and analyse current problems and proposed solutions facing industry and governments in strategic transportation planning; 2) determine the functional requirements of an FTN SPEDSS; 3) perform a feasibility analysis for building a FTN SPEDSS `proof-of-concept' prototype and (00) database design; 4) develop a methodology for a national `internet-enabled' SPEDSS model and database; 5) construct a `proof-of-concept' prototype for a SPEDSS encapsulating identified user requirements; 6) develop a methodology to resolve the issue of the scale of data and data knowledge acquisition which would act as the `intelligence' within a SPDSS; 7) implement the data methodology using Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) towards the validation of it; and 8) make recommendations for national freight transportation strategic planning and further research required to fulfil the needs of governments and industry. This thesis includes: an 00 database design for encapsulation of the FTN; an `internet-enabled' Dynamic Modelling Methodology (DMM) for the virtual modelling of the FTNs; a Unified Modelling Language (UML) `proof-of-concept' prototype; and conclusions and recommendations for further collaborative research are identified.