Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU), NSF NHERI 2025: Evaluating the Temporal Effects of Debris Removal on Travel Time and CO2 Emissions: A California Case Study

This project is a case study on the January 2025 Palisades and Eaton Fires in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area. The fires left behind 4.5 million tons of debris which necessitated a debris removal operation by the United States Army Corp of Engineers. This project analyzes the impacts of what time of day a dump truck starts its trip on the truck’s travel time and carbon dioxide emissions. To perform the traffic simulations, this study utilizes the Residual Demand Traffic Simulator of NHERI SimCenter’s Regional Resilience Determination Tool (R2D). The data obtained in this study can be used as a basis for further analysis. Because this study only accounts for three hours out of a weekday, more simulations should be conducted to obtain a better understanding of the travel times and carbon dioxide emissions throughout the week. Furthermore, this data can be compared should another study be conducted to account for more variables not accounted for in this study. This project takes a novel approach to utilizing NHERI SimCenter’s R2D. Wildfires, at the time of writing, is not a natural hazard that can be simulated by R2D. This project provides a case study on how to bypass the limitations and simulate a transportation network after a wildfire. This project’s audience includes those interested in wildfire and its impact on the transportation network, climate change, and those interested in transportation modeling.