Conditional value-at-risk model for hazardous materials transportation

Abstract

This paper investigates how the conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) can be used to mitigate risk in hazardous materials (hazmat) transportation. Routing hazmat must consider accident probabilities and accident consequences that depend on the hazmat types and route choices. This paper proposes a new method for mitigating risk based on CVaR measure. While the CVaR model is popularly used in financial portfolio optimization problems, its application in hazmat transportation is new. A computational method for determining the optimal CVaR route is proposed and illustrated by a case study in the road network surrounding Albany, NY.