A bid-rent land-use adaptation model for mitigating road network vulnerability and traffic emissions

Abstract

Disruptions of vulnerable links in transportation networks have been widely recognized as a serious safety issue, generating both traffic congestion and significant traffic emissions. This paper aims to consolidate a proposed land-use adaptation (LUA) strategy into transportation vulnerability assessment, quantitatively exploring the question about how to optimize spatial patterns in long-term land-use planning to improve network reliability, protect existing vulnerable links and critical locations, and reduce traffic emissions. To mitigate regional network vulnerability, the LUA model employs the bid-rent theory to describe the agents’ behaviors in the land market. Using the genetic and frank-wolf algorithms, this paper analyzes the relationship between link vulnerability and geographical distribution of land-use patterns. The amount of traffic-related CO emissions is used to evaluate the environmental impacts of the vulnerable link closure. The case study indicates that the long-term LUA strategy at land-cell level effectively reduces road network vulnerability, significantly improves the performance of existing urban road systems, and reduces traffic emissions. The model results also show that road networks tend to become more vulnerable with an increase in travel demand. Furthermore, without considering accessibility reduction caused by vulnerable transportation links, the land-use development is more likely to make the existing vulnerable links more susceptible. The proposed LUA methodology could allow urban system managers and planners to take proactive actions, thereby mitigating negative environmental impacts caused by network disruptions rather than being obliged to react to them .