SUSTAINABLE URBAN TRANSPORTATION: A MODEL-BASED APPROACH

ISSN： 1087-6553

Source： Cybernetics and Systems, Vol.35, Iss.5-6, 2004-07, pp. : 455-485

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Abstract

Transportation and its environmental impacts are a major component of urban environmental management. At the same time, transportation and mobility are an important part of urban economics and the quality of life. To analyze urban transportation and its environmental impacts, a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach is needed. No single model can cover the range of spatial and temporal scales and processes involved. This leads to a multi-tiered approach and a cascade of models to describe alternative urban development and transportation scenarios and their multicriteria assessment and comparative analysis. This paper describes the methodology and application examples of Sustainable Urban Transportation (SUTRA) (http://www.ess.co.at/SUTRA/) a City of Tomorrow project under the European Union Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Research Programme. The primary objective of SUTRA was to develop a consistent and comprehensive model-based approach and planning methodology for the analysis of urban transportation problems and to support design strategies for sustainable cities. This includes an integration of socioeconomic, environmental, and technological concepts including the development, integration, and demonstration of simulation tools to improve scenario design, assessment, and policy-level decision support. Combining an indicator-based approach with simulation models ranging from technoeconomic optimization to street canyon modeling, used for scenario analysis, socioeconomic, and environmental impact assessment, and a web-based public information component, the methodology ranges from awareness building and educational aspects for citizens and stakeholders participating in urban decision-making processes to detailed technical modeling and optimization results for the planning professional. The models employed in SUTRA describe urban development scenarios, their implications for the transportation system, and a range of economic and environmental impacts. Special emphasis was given to emissions and ambient air quality and, in consequence, population exposure and public health consequences, and accidents. The models used range in scale from street-canyon models with time horizons in hours to regional photochemical models considering seasonal patterns, transportation models describing the city and its environs, and technoeconomic models for long-term city-level or regional technological and energy analysis that estimate, inter alia , the market penetration of new transportation technologies over 20- to 30-years planning horizons. The links between the models, as well as the initial scenario assumptions and the overall evaluation framework, are formulated in terms of indicators. The city case studies of the SUTRA project (Buenos Aires, Gdansk, Genoa, Geneva, Lisbon, Tel Aviv, and Thessaloniki) differ widely in terms of culture, environmental conditions, size, economic structure, social composition, and demography. The modeling approach developed was tested against this range of cities of ensure general applicability and at the same time to provide data for a comparative analysis of the scenarios explored.