Code and documentation for HCU CSL + MIT CS HPA project
Harbors are complex systems in which several agents are involved. Some ports have reached its maximum land coverage; they can’t grow spatially, but the only way to increase its capacity is by optimizing existing infrastructures and processes. The Port City Model is a project that deepens in land transportation related to cruise tourism, focusing on comfort and efficiency from the user perspective. To do so, it combines data analysis and visualization with simulation of future scenarios. The outcome of the project is a software tool running on an interactive hardware that simplifies decision-making and facilitates dialogue among the stakeholders involved in the optimization of cruise passenger routes planning, affecting other port and port-related processes.
More specifically, the project studies the most frequent flows and routes in the city of Hamburg, where cruise tourism in strongly related to its Central Train Station, since a great amount of passengers arrive to the city by train. Due to its size and the vast affluence of people on a regular basis, Hamburg Central Station is a major challenge spot in land transportation related to cruise tourism, specially regarding orientation and perception of spatial quality of incoming cruise passengers. Aiming to enhance comfort and efficiency through testing alternative mobility scenarios, this work acknowledges that the potential optimization of any port and port-related mobility process constitutes a major priority, as not only poses improvement for itself but to the entire harbour system.
Data about arrival times, transportation choice, time spent in the city, amount of pieces of luggage, etc. is provided by Cruise Gate Hamburg and Aida Cruises, which the model should use as first input.