Urban Transport Planning, Its and Energy Resources: A Framework for Smart City Case Studies (original) (raw)

Policy-aware assessment of environmental impacts from transport in smart cities

Journal of Smart Cities, 2017

In recent research a performance evaluation framework for traffic management and Intelligent Transport Systems was developed, consisting of a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the themes of traffic efficiency, safety, pollution reduction and social inclusion, all of which are key components of a smart city. One of the innovative elements of these KPIs is their ability to consider the transport policy layer, in the sense that the evaluation of the suitability and effectiveness of different strategies and ITS options is calculated in relation to the decision-maker’s high-level transport policy rather than objectively. This is achieved through weighting factors, whereby more important policy objectives are weighted more heavily in the calculation. But while the theoretical framework is ready to accommodate the policy layer, no methodology to determine the values of the weighting factors has been developed so far. The present study, therefore, concentrates on the development ...

Smart city as a tool for sustainable mobility and transport decarbonisation

Transport Policy, 2018

The sustainable governance of transport systems remains a significant challenge for policy makers worldwide, particularly in cities. Urban areas are developing rapidly from a technological viewpoint, and innovative technologies create new possibilities for smart mobility management. Therefore, this study investigates the relationship between the implementation of the smart city concept and the idea of sustainable transport, particularly with regard to the reduction of transport generated CO 2 emissions. The study estimates CO 2 emissions for different potential scenarios of development for the Warsaw transport system until 2050 using the United Nations' ForFITS (For Future Inland Transport Systems) model. The study also analyses the additional impact on CO 2 emissions of smart city elements as determinants of mobility. The results show that meeting the reduction targets set by the European Union 2011 White Paper on Transport will be challenging, requiring an in-depth transformation of the transport and energy sectors. This study also confirms that smart city solutions can play a crucial role in mitigating transport emissions and meeting reduction goals. The conclusions provide important insights for the design of smart mobility governance and enhance the relationship between transport policy and research.

Incorporating transport energy into urban planning

Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 2008

Transport energy resources are largely finite, subject to constraints and a major cause of pollution. Transport-energy planning is not currently included in traditional transport and urban planning. However, transport energy is related to both land use and transport systems therefore transport-energy policy has the ability to positively influence urban design. A new tool has been created, the transport energy specification, which is intended for use within existing local government urban planning frameworks. In order to use this tool, a transport-energy limit is first defined by planning authorities that sets a quantifiable design boundary for urban and transport system development. The transport energy specification is then used to ensure development occurs within the defined design boundary. A case study was performed to demonstrate the required process to achieve a transport energy specification for an urban region. Karlsruhe, Germany was selected for the case study and the results showed that a minimal 0.97 MJ of transport energy per person per week was required, the equivalent energy a 60 W light bulb uses in four and a half hours. This was largely due to high residential density, many activities located within the residential area and the ease and safety of active transport (cycling and walking).

The Sustainability Dimensions in Intelligent Urban Transportation: A Paradigm for Smart Cities

Sustainability, 2021

The transportation sector has traditionally been considered essential for commercial activities, although nowadays, it presents clear negative impacts on the environment and can reduce social welfare. Thus, advanced optimization techniques are required to design sustainable routes with low logistic costs. Moreover, these negative impacts may be significantly increased as a consequence of the lack of synergy between the sustainability objectives. Correspondingly, the concept of transport optimization in smart cities is becoming popular in both the real world and academia when public decision making is lit by operations research models. In this paper, however, we argue that the level of urban smartness depends on its sustainability and on the level of information and communication technologies developed in the city. Therefore, the operations research models seek to achieve a higher threshold in the sustainable transport standards in smart cities. Thus, we present a generic definition ...

Modeling the Effectiveness of Intelligent Systems in Public Transport That Uses Low-Carbon Energy: A Case Study

Energies

Cities have been struggling for many years with many transport problems, including the impact of carbon monoxide emitted by vehicles on the environment, traffic jams, high energy consumption, numerous accidents or high infrastructure costs. There is also a dynamic growth of vehicles on the roads, which is why an increasing number of cities are introducing intelligent transportation systems (ITS), which is part of the concept of smart cities. This paper proposes a new matrix to assess the effects of the ITS implementation in the context of a concept Smart City, which consists of five criteria: (1) movement speed; (2) safety; (3) environmental; (4) economic; (5) satisfaction and amenities for society/passengers. In this new approach the benchmark values of the indicators assigned to the criteria are involved and, therefore, it is possible to determine the level of effectiveness of the ITS in public transport that uses low-carbon energy. This research used literature studies to establi...

Integration of a Multilevel Transport System Model into Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning

When planning their transport policy, cities usually focus on developing sustainable transport systems and reducing the negative consequences of transport. One way to deliver transport policies is to use the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP), a strategic document designed to meet the demand for mobility whilst ensuring adequate quality of life for the residents. The process of Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning (SUMP process) can be supported by using a transport model. The objective of this article is to analyse the efficacy of the Multilevel Model of Transport Systems—referred to by its acronym, MST—for the SUMP process. With its ability to represent the transport system's behaviour depending on the level of detail, the MST can significantly benefit the SUMP process. The proposed concept of integration of the MST into the SUMP process has already been tested and applied in delivering Gdynia's (Poland) SUMP. The paper suggests ways to use the MST at different levels of planning and modelling and describes the outcomes. Using the multilevel structure helps to fully realise the transport model's potential to improve the effectiveness of urban mobility planning. The conclusions show that the methods proposed in the article are worthwhile and cities should consider them when planning the SUMP process.

Methodology for integrated modelling and impact assessment of city energy system scenarios

Energy Strategy Reviews, 2020

Cities are ought to play a key role in the energy transition to a low carbon society as they concentrate more than half of the world's population and are responsible for about 67% primary energy consumption and around 70% of the energy-related CO 2 emissions. To achieve the agreed climate targets, efficient urban planning is a must. Tools and methods have risen to model different aspects of the energy performance of urban areas. Nevertheless, addressing the complexity of a city energy system is a great challenge and new integrated tools and methods are still needed. This paper presents a methodology for integrated city energy modelling and assessment, from the characterization of the city's current energy performance to the development and assessment of future scenarios. Energy characterization is based on the combination of bottom-up approaches with top-down data to establish the city's energy baseline. This baseline integrates bottom-up results from a GIS based model which is used to characterize the city's building stock energy performance, while available information on the vehicle stock is used to model the mobility sector. Scenarios are developed from this baseline and assessed through a multi-criteria impact assessment model. A simplified case study is carried out for the city of Valencia (Spain) to demonstrate the suggested methodology, and results are shown for three different scenarios: one focused on the building sector, one on transport, and one combining measures in both sectors. The transport-focused scenario demonstrates to be the most favourable in terms of energy savings and emissions reductions. The application of the proposed method is intended to support the development of strategies and plans for energy transition at city level. The main challenges for its application in cities are data availability at urban level, the uncertainty related to modelling the transport sector, and the unavailability of adapted I/O tables at city scale to assess socioeconomic impacts.

A modeling framework for impact assessment of urban transport systems

Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 1999

An integrated software tool environment is presented, and a methodology is proposed for the operational support of the local authority, for analysis of the impact of transport measures in terms of network energy consumption and pollutant emissions. It is based on work done by the European Union within the save program (speci®c actions for vigorous energy eciency)ÐSlam project (supporting local authorities methodology). As background, the Slam project is described, with the principal aspects and needs of environmental and trac network management. The central section de®nes a methodology able to support technicians in recognizing the trac asset and decision makers in evaluating interventions on urban transport infrastructures or technological systems. The role of the dierent models and their interactions with the transport telematics services currently active on the Florence (Italy) network is discussed. Finally, the procedure for calculating the trac impacts on energy consumption is described with the help of a test case, the evaluation of a dedicated bus corridor in Florence. #

An Analysis Matrix for the Assessment of Smart City Technologies: Main Results of Its Application

SYSTEMS, 2017

The paper presents the main results of a previously developed methodology to better evaluate new technologies in Smart Cities, using a tool to evaluate different systems and technologies regarding their usefulness, considering each application and how technologies can impact the physical space and natural environment. Technologies have also been evaluated according to how they are used by citizens, who must be the main concern of all urban development. Through a survey conducted among the Smart City Spanish network (RECI) we found that the ICT's that change our cities everyday must be reviewed, developing an innovative methodology in order to find an analysis matrix to assess and score all the technologies that affect a Smart City strategy. The paper provides the results of this methodology regarding the three main aspects to be considered in urban developments: mobility, energy efficiency, and quality of life after obtaining the final score for every analyzed technology. This methodology fulfills an identified need to study how new technologies could affect urban scenarios before being applied, developing an analysis system to be used by urban planners and policy-makers to decide how best to use them, and this paper tries to show, in a simple way, how they can appreciate the variances between different solutions.

Smart Urban Mobility System Evaluation Model Adaptation to Vilnius, Montreal and Weimar Cities

Sustainability, 2022

To date, there is no developed and validated way to assess urban smartness. When evaluating smart city mobility systems, different authors distinguish different indicators. After analysing the evaluation indicators of the transport system presented in the scientific articles, the most relevant and influential indicators were selected. This article develops a hierarchical evaluation model for evaluating a smart city transportation system. The indicators are divided into five groups called “factors”. Several indicators are assigned to each of the listed groups. A hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method was used to calculate the significance of the selected indicators and to compare urban mobility systems. The applied multi-criteria evaluation methods were simple additive weighting (SAW), complex proportional assessment (COPRAS), and technique for order preference by similiarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). The significance of factors and indicators was determined by expert ...