Development of a Decision Support Framework for the Planning of Sustainable Transportation Systems

With the rapid increase in economic development throughout the world, there is stress on the resources used to support global economy, including petroleum, coal, silver, and water. Currently, the world is consuming energy at an unprecedented rate never seen before. The finite nature of such non-renewable natural resources as petroleum and coal puts pressure on the environmental system, and ultimately reduces the availability of resources for future generations. Hence, it is critical to develop planning and operational strategies that seek to achieve a sustainable use of existing natural resources. With this motivation, this dissertation focuses to develop a decision support framework based on multiple performance measures for the planning of sustainable transportation systems. A holistic approach was adopted to compute performance indices for a System of Systems (SOS) including the Transportation, Activity, and Environmental systems. The performance indices were synthesized to calculate a composite sustainability index to evaluate the sustainability of the overall SOS. To help make better design and policy decisions at an aggregate level, a suitable modeling approach that captures the dynamic interactions within the SOS was formulated. A method of system of ordinary differential equations was chosen to model the aggregated performance indices and their interdependencies over time. In addition, systems and control methodology was used in the development of optimal policies (with respect to investments in various systems) for decision making purposes. The results indicated that the Transportation and Activity system both follow positive trend over the years whereas the Environmental system follows an overall negative trend. This is evident as continuous increase in growth and transportation will result in decreased performance of Environmental system over time. The results also highlighted periodic behavior with a phase lag for the performance of Transportation and the Activity system; the performance of Environment system decayed with time. In addition, the results demonstrated that it is possible to formulate an optimal control to predict investment decisions over time. Furthermore, the results from this research provided an alternate, cost-effective method to rank and prioritize projects based on sustainability index values. The major contributions of this research are fourfold. The first contribution of this research is the development of a framework to generate sustainability indices for policy making considering, explicitly, multiple interdependent systems. This research is first of its kind to study the dynamical interactions between the three systems: Transportation, Activity, and Environment. The second contribution of this research is a detailed analysis to understand the dynamics of the three interdependent systems. Multiple insights were obtained from this research. The techniques learnt can be applied to perform multi-city network modeling through the concept of interconnected networks. In addition, the need to conserve the environment and preserve the resources is highlighted. The third contribution of this research work is development of control mechanisms to evaluate investment policies for the design of sustainable systems. Investment decisions were derived from the design. The fourth contribution of this research is the development of a framework to estimate sustainability indices for the evaluation and prioritization of transportation projects. Projects are prioritized and ranked based on the sustainability index values. The greater the sustainability index value, the higher is the project priority. This provides a comprehensive mechanism to incorporate information beyond traditional techniques

An indexing model for stormwater quality assessment: stormwater management in the Gold Coast

In the age of climate change and rapid urbanisation, stormwater management and water sensitive urban design have become important issues for urban policy makers. This paper reports the initial findings of a research study that develops an indexing model for assessing stormwater quality in the Gold Coast

Strategies for sustainable socio-economic development and mechanisms their implementation in the global dimension

The authors of the book have come to the conclusion that it is necessary to effectively use modern approaches to developing and implementation strategies of sustainable socio-economic development in order to increase efficiency and competitiveness of economic entities. Basic research focuses on economic diagnostics of socio-economic potential and financial results of economic entities, transition period in the economy of individual countries and ensuring their competitiveness, assessment of educational processes and knowledge management. The research results have been implemented in the different models and strategies of supply and logistics management, development of non-profit organizations, competitiveness of tourism and transport, financing strategies for small and medium-sized enterprises, cross-border cooperation. The results of the study can be used in decision-making at the level the economic entities in different areas of activity and organizational-legal forms of ownership, ministries and departments that promote of development the economic entities on the basis of models and strategies for sustainable socio-economic development. The results can also be used by students and young scientists in modern concepts and mechanisms for management of sustainable socio-economic development of economic entities in the condition of global economic transformations and challenges

Multicriteria sustainability evaluation of transport networks for selected European countries

As an essential economic activity, transportation has complex interactions with the environment and society. Since the concept of sustainable development has become one of the top priorities for nations, there has been a growing interest in evaluating the performance of transport systems with respect to sustainability issues. The main purpose of this study is to introduce a decision making framework to assess the sustainability of the transport networks in a multidimensional setting and a technique to identify non-compromise alternatives. We also propose an elucidation technique to identify according to which criteria a system needs to be improved and how much improvement is required to attain a certain level of sustainability. The proposed methods are applied to a set of selected European countries within a case study

Spatial Dynamic Modeling and Urban Land Use Transformation:

Assessing the economic impacts of urban land use transformation has become complex and acrimonious. Although community planners are beginning to comprehend the economic trade-offs inherent in transforming the urban fringe, they find it increasingly difficult to analyze and assess the trade-offs expediently and in ways that can influence local decisionmaking. New and sophisticated spatial modeling techniques are now being applied to urban systems that can quickly assess the probable spatial outcomes of given communal policies. Applying an economic impact assessment to the probable spatial patterns can provide to planners the tools needed to quickly assess scenarios for policy formation that will ultimately help inform decision makers. This paper focuses on the theoretical underpinnings and practical application of an economic impact analysis submodel developed within the Land use Evolution and Impact Assessment Modeling (LEAM) environment. The conceptual framework of LEAM is described, followed by an application of the model to the assessment of the cost of urban sprawl in Kane County, Illinois. The results show the effectiveness of spatially explicit modeling from a theoretical and a practical point of view. The agent-based approach of spatial dynamic modeling with a high spatial resolution allows for discerning the macro-level implications of micro-level behaviors. These phenomena are highlighted in the economic submodel in the discussion of the implications of land use change decisions on individual and communal costs; low-density development patterns favoring individual behaviors at the expense of the broader community.