How weather shocks impact the flow of energy-related goods on the Lower Mississippi River
Abstract
The Lower Mississippi River (LMR) is a pivotal transport route for American imports
and
exports. Disruptions on the LMR could impact the timely movement of goods up and down
the
river, particularly energy-related products. This study evaluates how droughts and
floods impact
energy barge traffic along the LMR. We examine the effect water level has on barge
travel rate
along various legs of the LMR and on the count of vessels at selected study regions.
The results indicate a negative relationship between water level and vessel count:
as water level increases, the number of vessels at specific study regions decreases;
as water level decreases, the number of vessels at specific study regions increases.
Additionally, water level has a greater impact on downstream travel rate for vessels
in comparison to upstream travel rate. We find that these results will likely have
minimal impact on the energy resiliency of counties along the LMR but could increase
energy barge operating costs and thus lead to a modal switch toward less energy efficient
and more costly freight alternatives.
Type
Master's projectPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/18377Citation
Murnan, Gabrielle; Vanchosovych, Yuliya; & Wu, Fan (2019). How weather shocks impact the flow of energy-related goods on the Lower Mississippi
River. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/18377.Collections
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