Information technology, especially intelligent systems, will be utilized as the primary mode of directing cargo activities in the industry. Intelligent systems represent a major advance and fundamental departure from traditional information handling approaches in marine terminal cargo handling. A company's business posture depends on accommodating the latest and best technological advances. Almost every industry is struggling to implement technological solutions to its everyday business challenges. This reflects the general view that the future of business enterprises will be dramatically affected by their ability to utilize and implement intelligent systems to achieve economic advantages.
Procedures are available to identify and estimate many of the direct effects of projects.
Indirect effects are harder to identify and more difficult to assess. These can be classified as changes in social and economic conditions, natural resources, cultural or historical resources, accessibility, induced traffic, noise levels and air quality. As principal investigator of a National Highway Research program project on the subject, Nicholas Masucci of Louis Berger developed the analytical framework to measure the indirect effects of transportation projects. In this seminar Mr. Pesesky discussed the use of these guidelines in defining indirect effects, describing the conditions under which they are likely to occur, techniques for estimating the effects, and procedures to facilitate the analysis. Case studies representing transportation improvements that demonstrate the analytical framework were given.