Independently research this key logistics issue and report on it. Define the problem and its scope and provide some possible solutions. The report should clearly elucidte the problem situation. What...

The Nation’s Deteriorating Infrastructure
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Infrastructure poses three related problems; of history, present, and future. The first is
that, as long-term expenditure, it is beyond immediate political concern; as a result, the need
to maintain structures such as power stations and roads, which are built to last for
significantly longer than 5-year election terms, suffers from the problems of political
expediency. Secondly, present infrastructure spending requires thinking about the future in a
longer than five year term, and developing the infrastructure that will be required for that
longer term, as well as maintaining the infrastructure that exists; and this too often suffers
from political expediency, with bridges and roads to nowhere being built in places that will
not see this increase in use, and places that will see increased use not receiving support
because they are not headline-grabbing enough. Finally, infrastructure degrades at a rate that
cannot be sufficiently predicted; As Madanat et al. (1997) note, infrastructure is the same as
any other complex system; the deterioration cannot be sufficiently predicted by any given
model. Even if it is perfectly preserved and planned, it is impossible to know what will
degrade and when. Solutions must be found in each of these fields.
In order to manage the problems of old infrastructure, as Frangopol & Jung (2001)
suggest, ideally a universal mathematical decision system is required that pays more attention
to the nature of the system than to this political expediency; with the expected lower input
costs and stochastic deterioration process, it is critical that an evidence-based policy is used.
Kavinoky (2008)...