The berth allocation optimisation with the consideration of time-varying water depths

Abstract

Confronting the challenges provided by jumbo container vessels, managers of world-class seaports must take into consideration water depths-related constraints when making the vessel berthing decisions. That is, when the water depths satisfy the requirement of jumbo vessels’ drafts, these vessels are allowed to sail through the navigation channel. In this paper, we study a tactical berth allocation problem under the consideration of time-varying water depths. For the resolution, we propose an integer programming model, a set partitioning formulation and an improved differential evolutionary algorithm. Computational experiments demonstrate that the set partitioning formulation outperforms the integer programming model and can be applied to solve small- and medium-sized problems. The improved differential evolutionary algorithm is recommended for large-sized problems.

Keywords:

• berth allocation
• quay crane allocation
• water depths
• set partitioning
• differential evolutionary algorithm

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the editor and anonymous referees for their valuable insights and suggestions which significantly improved this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [grant number 71571134], [grant number 71571135], [grant number 71428002]. The work was also supported by the Cai Yuanpei Programme between the French Ministries of Foreign and European Affairs and the Higher Education and Research and the Chinese Ministry of Education.