Marine Units Performance Simulation under Changing Environment in the Caspian Sea

Abstract

Simulation was performed with Genetic Algorithm (GA) which is a heuristic algorithm for path search optimization as reanalysis using historical observations of ice conditions as input. Several transportation modes (conventional shallow water fleet, Air Cushion Vehicles (ACV) and Amphibious All-Terrain Vehicles (ATV)) were considered with their limiting conditions to understand the effects of changing environment and possibility to access ice covered shallow areas in the Northeastern Caspian. Downtime and travel time variation were used to illustrate joint action of reducing water level and depleting ice cover on logistical chain in the region.