Modeling Travel Time to Markets and Its Application in Analyzing Flood Impacts on Transport

The Humanitarian Information Unit (HIU) refined an analytical model and applied it to the Horn of Africa in order to answer questions concerning market access from a regional perspective, travel time to market in cross-border trade, and the catchment areas of key markets. The results of the analyses are closely related to anecdotal information on travel times and reported effects of localized flooding. Three test analyses were conducted for market access travel time: first for nine major capital cities and ports; second for 43 key cities and towns; and third for the impact of heavy flooding on regional access.

The first analysis revealed overall travel times to capital cities and key ports to be closely related to terrain considerations and the availability of all-weather roads. The results from the second analysis were similar to the first but demonstrate a more detailed market network. The third analysis showed that travel routes were affected well beyond the actual geographic extent of the flooding.

Courtesy of U.S. State Department, Office of the Geographer and Global Issues, Humanitarian Information Unit.