113,187 research outputs found

    Internal report cluster 1: Urban freight innovations and solutions for sustainable deliveries (3/4)

    Get PDF
    Technical report about sustainable urban freight solutions, part 3 of

    Under which conditions is carrier cooperation possible? A case study in a Seville marketplace

    Get PDF
    The high volume of traffic originates two well-known problems in many cities: congestion and pollution. In recent years, a social phenomenon is emerging cooperation. This work is aimed at evaluating the circumstances under which transport cooperation is possible between different stakeholders operating in the same geographical area. To this end, a double survey process was conducted in a marketplace situated in the Seville City (Spain) centre. The first survey was designed to know the characteristics of the retailers and their preferences with respect to cooperation and regulations. A relational analysis between retailer features and their willingness to cooperate was carried out. After analysing the motivations for non-cooperation, a mixed proposal was designed and surveyed. Although the research was limited to a marketplace, the relevant data gathered from this double survey process highlights some implications: (a) the importance of personal relations in retailer cooperation; (b) a high volume of freight and the use of vans as on-street warehouses appear as significant motivations for non-cooperation; (c) forcing changes in the statu quo encourages cooperation.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España) TEC2013-47286-C3-3-

    Evaluating urban freight transport policies within complex urban environments

    Get PDF
    Urban Freight Transport (UFT) entails significant advantages for the economic growth of cities, but can also hamper population quality of life, obstructing vehicles and people movements while exacerbating environmental problems. Many initiatives have been engaged by many city administrators in order to efficiently manage UFT, evaluating different policies at a global scale. From the perspective of operators, most works analyze a limited set of policies or only focus on the benefits of companies. In this work, a decisionmaking process is used to evaluate a large set of UFT policies, through different attributes representing the advantages and limitations of each policy over promoter companies and the society. To do so, an ex-ante procedure in five steps is proposed to classify the policies: (1) attributes definition, (2) attributes weighting, (3) policy-attribute assessment, (4) policy ranking, and (5) feasibility threshold satisfaction. The whole process is supported on consultations to 26 experts regarding shop supply and restocking activities within complex urban environments. Results show a classification of the analyzed policies, according to their suitability for implementation ; which could be extended (directly or with small adjustments) to other contexts, given the flexibility of the decision-making procedure developed.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

    Haiti Earthquake January 2010: What Actions and Policies Can the Government of Haiti Implement to Improve Emergency Management Response

    Get PDF
    In 2010, Haiti experienced a devastating earthquake that destroyed much of its capital city and the governmental offices that should have guided the response to the disaster. This research focuses on how Haiti can benefit from the Caribbean Disaster Management Agency’s standards for disaster resilience as it works to recover from the earthquake. Unfortunately, Haiti has long been dependent on assistance from non-governmental organizations due to its extreme poverty; its recovery is complicated by the need to integrate disaster assistance and on-going economic and social assistance into its development of a more resilient society

    Supply chain challenges for sustainability: the case of waste textiles as raw materials

    Get PDF
    Purpose: This paper addresses the growing problem of textile waste in the rapidly developing cities of subSaharan Africa and examines, from a supply chain perspective, the potential for waste textile materials to be transformed into the raw materials for new consumer products. Research Approach: The paper reflects on the outcomes of a field trip to Dar es Salaam in which stakeholders in a hypothesised textile waste supply chain were interviewed and waste textile materials were analysed in order to determine their content and appropriateness for reuse. Findings from the field study have been compared with current literature on logistics and market creation, waste generation, management and recycling in sub-Saharan Africa. Findings and Originality: The findings show that a rudimentary system has been in place for many years to collect and recycle textiles in Dar es Salaam. However, at the same time as textile waste is projected to increase in the city, collection rates are falling. The chief reasons for the falling rates are failures in the ‘modernised mixture’ approach to waste collection employed by Dar es Salaam City Council and market failure for the collected materials. Alternative combinations of ‘modernised mixtures’, incorporating community-based organisations, are likely to increase textile yields from unplanned urban areas but previous high-profile failures in such systems within Dar es Salaam mean there is caution on both sides in entering into such a relationship. The more pressing problem is to identify appropriate end markets for the textile materials, since in a country where recycling is entirely market-driven, failure to do so will undermine any attempt to improve the collection system. Whilst many studies have considered general recycling practices in sub-Saharan Africa, there are few investigations into textile waste. Furthermore, those existing studies do not consider the importance of understanding fibre composition of the materials in order to determine the most appropriate end markets. Research Impact: The research contributes to the growing body of knowledge on ‘bottom of the pyramid’ approaches to sustainable futures. Practical Impact: The work presented considers supply chain problems and offers approaches to tackling the increasing waste management issues of Dar es Salaam and proposes a mechanism for doing so which has the potential to provide income for the poorest sectors of the urban society

    World cities and global commodity chains: an introduction

    Get PDF
    The purpose of this special anniversary issue is to assess the possible cross-fertilization between two prominent analytical frameworks: the World City Network framework, in which researchers have studied the emergence of a globalized urban system for the provision of a host of advanced corporate services: and the Global Commodity Chain framework, in which researchers have scrutinized the inter connected functions, operations and transactions through which specific commodities are produced, distributed and consumed in a globalized economy. These two approaches have developed in parallel but have rarely been brought together. This introductory essay identifies the common roots and recent history of these two frameworks, and outlines how the six articles contribute to their theoretical and empirical cross-fertilization

    Internal report cluster 1: Urban freight innovations and solutions for sustainable deliveries (2/4)

    Get PDF
    Technical report about sustainable urban freight solutions, part 2 of

    Appropriate Economic Space for Transnational Infrastructural Projects: Gateways, Multimodal Corridors, and Special Economic Zones

    Get PDF
    This study addresses three questions that arise in Asia when formulating, financing, implementing, and maintaining transnational linkages versus purely domestic connections. Firstly, how is optimal economic space to be defined as a useful starting point? Secondly, how can relevant criteria be developed to define the emerging spatial economy and identify efficient transnational transport networks? Thirdly, what are the main investment opportunities in physical infrastructure that would result in more efficient and effective regional cooperation and integration (making special reference to the potential role of cross-border special economic zones (SEZs) or their equivalents)?asia transnational infrastructure; asia regional cooperation

    E-business impacts for urban freight: results from an Australian study

    Get PDF
    E-Business is expected to dramatically change the way business is conducted internationally, nationally, within states and at the local area level. Moreover, these changes are very likely to happen well within the planning time frames required for provision of transport infrastructure and services. E-business is defined as including e-commerce, either between Businesses to Business (B2B) or Business to Customers (B2C), and the adoption of electronic technology within businesses. This paper presents some results from a study commissioned by the Australian National Transport Secretariat (NTS) to assist Australian business and government pro-actively address the transport issues arising from e-business. The resulting working papers will be used to establish a research framework for identifying policy and planning levers to maximize benefits to Australia from national and global e-business activity. The study sought to investigate three principal questions on e-business impacts: how will the transport task change; what will be affected; and how can the transport system respond? Current literature suggests that growth in e-business stems from the combined existence of market demand, suitable enabling technology, and skills and familiarity in management/users/ industry/government. The results of the study suggest that e-business will have implications for urban freight including higher levels of demand for goods and services, increased requirements for logistics distribution, changes in location preferences and improved transport network performance
    corecore