Validation of a Microsimulation of the Port of Dover
This work addresses the need for reliable simulation tools in port planning, though it appears incremental in its methodological contributions.
The paper tackled the challenge of validating microsimulations for secure environments like seaports, presenting data and methods for lightweight vehicle assessment to calibrate and validate simulations while diagnosing overcalibration issues.
Modelling and simulating the traffic of heavily used but secure environments such as seaports and airports is of increasing importance. Errors made when simulating these environments can have long standing economic, social and environmental implications. This paper discusses issues and problems that may arise when designing a simulation strategy. Data for the Port is presented, methods for lightweight vehicle assessment that can be used to calibrate and validate simulations are also discussed along with a diagnosis of overcalibration issues. We show that decisions about where the intelligence lies in a system has important repercussions for the reliability of system statistics. Finally, conclusions are drawn about how microsimulations can be moved forward as a robust planning tool for the 21st century.