A framework for sustainable port planning in inland ports: a multistakeholder approach

In the European Union, all levels of government are convinced that an accelerated development of a modal shift towards inland navigation is one of the key requirements for reducing congestion and environmental externalities. This is becoming increasingly important, given the fast growing (road) transport needs at the macro-economic level. It is expected that inland ports can play a crucial role in achieving such a modal shift. However, many inland ports are confronted with important spatial, socio-economic and regulatory constraints as, historically, they have been located in the centre of large (capital) cities and other high density urban regions. As a result, they face constant pressure from a variety of stakeholders (urban residents, leisure industry, ecological movement, ?) and they must continuously defend their right of existence. The aim of this paper is to present a conceptual framework for inland port planning that builds upon a multistakeholder ? multicriteria approach, which takes into account all the short-term and long-term stakeholder preferences and objectives, in order to realize sustainable port development. This framework will also deal with the complexity of the port function in urban regions, as these ports/activities are in most cases dispersed over the urban region, whereby each port ?zone? has its own specific spatial, socio-economic, and regulatory characteristics. The combination of existing literature in the fields of (urban) port development and multicriteria analysis, and empirical evidence, gathered during the development of a strategic masterplan for the inland Port of Brussels, will permit the formulation of a new approach to inland port development.

The importance of stakeholder analysis in freight transport

In this paper the multi actor, multi criteria analysis method or in short the MAMCA method is presented for the evaluation of transport project. In this method stakeholders are explicitly taken into account which is very important in the freight transport sector. Starting from an overview of evaluation methods, the paper comes to the integrated MAMCA approach. Several applications of this method are discussed

Proactive stakeholder management in the port planning process: empirical evidence from the Port of Brussels.

Port planning and port management are increasingly influenced by a variety of external stakeholders, each pursuing specific strategic objectives with regard to port activities and port development. A greater focus on external stakeholders may increase the port activities’ legitimacy at the city and regional levels, and may also contribute to sustainable development. In this paper, a new port planning methodology is designed within the context of the development of the Port of Brussels (Belgium) Master plan, time horizon 2015. This new planning methodology describes the port planning process, building upon the decomposition of the total port area in several distinct port objectives were taken into account in this planning process, and how this multi-zone, multi-stakeholder approach can be generalized to improve upon conventional strategic port planning processes. Keywords: Port planning, stakeholder management, evaluation methods

A framework for sustainable port planning in inland ports: a multistakeholder approach

In the European Union, all levels of government are convinced that an accelerated development of a modal shift towards inland navigation is one of the key requirements for reducing congestion and environmental externalities. This is becoming increasingly important, given the fast growing (road) transport needs at the macro-economic level. It is expected that inland ports can play a crucial role in achieving such a modal shift. However, many inland ports are confronted with important spatial, socio-economic and regulatory constraints as, historically, they have been located in the centre of large (capital) cities and other high density urban regions. As a result, they face constant pressure from a variety of stakeholders (urban residents, leisure industry, ecological movement, ?) and they must continuously defend their right of existence. The aim of this paper is to present a conceptual framework for inland port planning that builds upon a multistakeholder - multicriteria approach, which takes into account all the short-term and long-term stakeholder preferences and objectives, in order to realize sustainable port development. This framework will also deal with the complexity of the port function in urban regions, as these ports/activities are in most cases dispersed over the urban region, whereby each port ?zone? has its own specific spatial, socio-economic, and regulatory characteristics. The combination of existing literature in the fields of (urban) port development and multicriteria analysis, and empirical evidence, gathered during the development of a strategic masterplan for the inland Port of Brussels, will permit the formulation of a new approach to inland port development

the future of freight transport

n/

The future of European communication and transportation research: a research agenda

Our mobility system is changing rapidly. We are at the crossroad of major changes in the way we travel and deliver goods. Research agendas are adapting to this changed environment with new challenges and opportunities. This paper presents a research agenda for the future of transportation research structured along eight cluster topics of the Network on European Communication and Transport Activities Research (NECTAR).  The research agenda firstly highlights the growing complexity and need for multi- and interdisciplinary transportation research. Secondly, sustainability needs to be addressed in transportation research in its full meaning, including relationships between policy-making investigations and environmental and equity effects. Thirdly, ICTs and digitalisation, the development of (shared) autonomous vehicles and shared mobility will have profound impacts on economies and spatial interactions all-around the world, and availability of high resolution spatial and transportation data. Digitalisation generates many new research opportunities but also give rise to new concerns about privacy, safety, equity and public health

Enhancing Stakeholder Participation in Urban Mobility Planning: the NISTO Evaluation Framework

Public participation and stakeholder involvement have become core prerequisites of a comprehensive and fair transport planning process. In this paper, we show how the multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA) methodology can enhance urban and regional mobility planning and decision-making by considering conflicting stakeholder objectives and helping to identify synergies and disagreement between different stakeholder groups. We suggest the application of MAMCA as part of the NISTO evaluation framework that offers tools to appraise small-scale mobility projects through a toolkit of multi-criteria analysis, MAMCA and target monitoring. MAMCA provides a tool to appraise the preferences of the stakeholders involved or affected by a project. It is based on assessing the evaluation criteria of the different stakeholder groups rather than appraising the project based on a set of common criteria agreed on with all stakeholders at the beginning of the process. Therefore the evaluation shows which implementation alternatives or scenarios each group would prefer and allows for a straightforward comparison of preferences across all stakeholder groups. The application of the MAMCA is demonstrated through the initial results of the evaluation of five demonstration projects in North-West Europe. We show that MAMCA is suitable for a range of mobility projects since it can handle the diversity of stakeholder groups and their objectives. In addition it offers the practitioner a well-structured way of carrying out the whole evaluation process. The application of MAMCA also has the added value of broadening the evaluation process to a wide range of stakeholders instead of limiting it to experts. As opposed to previous approaches, the MAMCA methodology aims to provide a balanced evaluation process where the stakeholders have equal weight, i.e. no priority is given to decision makers, users groups or experts. Our analysis of the process of the identification of stakeholders and their objectives also suggests that there is no generic recipe for the range of stakeholders to be involved in different projects, their objectives and the data that needs to be collected for the evaluation. The MAMCA methodology will be offered to practitioners as a simple-to-use web-based software tool that can collect stakeholder objectives and weights, as well as the input of experts and monitoring data for the evaluation of the alternatives and display the outcome on graphs. Therefore we hope that the tool will improve participation in urban decision-making and evaluation thorough the better integration of diverse stakeholder preferences

Commuting to Brussels: how attractive is “free” public transport?

Brussels is facing huge challenges in the field of mobility which, if not tackled, will have a large impact on both the environment and the economy. With one vehicle for less than two inhabitants, the city of Brussels has one of the highest motorization rates in Europe. Over the past decade, several Belgian cities have been experimenting with “free” public transport based on the concept of a third payer system to stimulate the use of public transport instead of the car. This study explores the modal shift potential of this measure for commuters in Brussels by means of a large scale survey. The results indicate that there is still a margin for a further modal shift away from car use, but in order to make public transport more attractive to car users the price paid by the commuter should be lowered, the quality and capacity of the public services should be improved and the mobility policy of the companies should be adjusted in favour of public transport.Un enjeu majeur à Bruxelles consiste à améliorer la mobilité afin d’en enrayer au mieux l’impact sur l’environnement et l’économie. Avec un véhicule pour moins de deux habitants, la ville de Bruxelles a un taux de motorisation parmi les plus élevés d’Europe. Depuis ces dix dernières années, plusieurs villes belges expérimentent la « gratuité » des transports publics basée sur le concept d’un système de tiers payant qui stimule l’utilisation des transports en commun au détriment de la voiture particulière. L’étude qui suit explore le potentiel de report modal de cette mesure pour les navetteurs bruxellois, en s’appuyant sur une enquête à grande échelle. Les résultats montrent qu’il reste encore un peu de marge pour le report modal au détriment de la voiture particulière, mais que les transports en commun seraient plus attractifs si l’on en réduisait le coût pour l’usager, si l’on améliorait la qualité et la capacité des services et si les entreprises adaptaient leur politique de mobilité au profit de ces transports.Op het vlak van mobiliteit staat Brussel voor enorme uitdagingen, die – als ze niet worden aangegaan – een grote impact zullen hebben zowel op het milieu als op de economie. Met één voertuig voor minder dan twee inwoners behoort Brussel tot de steden met de hoogste motoriseringsgraad in Europa. De voorbije tien jaar hebben verschillende Belgische steden geëxperimenteerd met “gratis” openbaar vervoer, gebaseerd op het concept van het “derdebetalersysteem”, om mensen aan te moedigen het openbaar vervoer te gebruiken in plaats van de wagen. Aan de hand van een grootschalige enquête wil deze studie nagaan wat het modal-shiftpotentieel is van die maatregel voor pendelaars in Brussel. Uit de resultaten blijkt dat er nog steeds een marge is voor een verdere modal shift ten nadele van het autogebruik. Om het openbaar vervoer echter aantrekkelijker te maken voor wagengebruikers zou de prijs die de pendelaar ervoor betaalt, moeten worden verminderd en zouden de kwaliteit en de capaciteit van de openbare diensten moeten worden verbeterd. Ook zou het mobiliteitsbeleid van bedrijven moeten worden aangepast ten voordele van het openbaar vervoer

Looper: Towards a Methodology of Co-Design Approaches

When setting up their own participatory process, researchers and citizens alike are confronted with a wide array of online and offline tools targeted towards facilitating co-creation. With such a multitude of solutions available and approaches differing across countries and fields, how can one make an informed choice? This paper lays out the first results of a methods review that will create a co-creation and co-design toolbox for Living Labs. The review scopes across various disciplines and fields of application. Two promising physical toolkits and three comprehensive handbooks for facilitators are presented, detailing the circumstances under which they are potentially the most useful. The research takes place within LOOPER (Learning Loops in the Public Realm), a JPI Europe funded research project with Living Labs running in Brussels, Manchester and Verona. The aim of this project is to build a participatory co-creation methodology and platform to demonstrate ‘learning loops’, bringing together citizens, stakeholders and policy-makers to iteratively learn how to address urban challenges (road safety, traffic calming, air and noise pollution). The review of existing tools serves as a preparatory activity for the Living Labs by developing the preliminary methodology which will form the backbone for the co-design of solutions in the living labs