Modelling for Sustainable Cities: The Transport Sector.

Abstract

Since the publication of the Brundtland Report "Our Common Future" in 1987 and the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, sustainable development has been widely accepted as an issue of strategic importance on global, national and local scales. The problems to be addressed under the sustainability heading are extremely diversified. On the one hand there are the developing countries of the South experiencing rapid population growth and environmental degradation. On the other hand there is the North with more stable population but very large consumption, putting higher pressure on the environment than the South. Also, the increase of consumption and wealth in the North does not necessarily parallel an improvement of the quality of life. Most severe and diversified problems are encountered in cities: from traffic congestion and air pollution to unemployment, disruption of social networks and crime. This paper concerns urban sustainability issues related to transport, focusing on European cities. A conceptual model is described in which we have attempted to present impacts of transport on the human system and the environment, factors that determine the extent of that impact, and indicators that could be used as a measure of transport sustainability