A Theoretical Research Framework of Future Sustainable Urban Freight Transport for Smart Cities

Zhangyuan He,Hans-Dietrich Haasis

doi:10.3390/su12051975

Abstract

This paper aims to construct a theoretical research framework for sustainable urban freight transport (SUFT) from the perspectives of future urban development and distribution innovations, and appropriate research methods are discussed, as well. Urban freight transport plays a critical role in the promotion of sustainable and livable cities. According to the literature review, considerable research on SUFT has focused on resolving some specific problems with a short-term perspective. The existence of an urban freight transport strategy is noted, which should be embedded in an overall sustainable development strategy with a long-term perspective (approximately 20–30 years). Nevertheless, considerable research has paid scant attention to the long-term planning of SUFT. Given this, this paper contributes to the closure of this gap. First, this paper presents a systematic literature review (SLR) to highlight published papers involving foresight research within the past 16 years (2003–2018). This step contributes to the understanding of research methods that can be used in foresight research. Subsequently, this paper discusses the impacts of both urban development and distribution innovations on future SUFT, and these effects are used to select the appropriate methods to construct the theoretical research framework. Finally, the theoretical research framework of long-term planning for SUFT is developed on the basis of two future perspectives: the trends of urban development and the application of urban distribution innovations. This framework is intended to provide an approach to designing sustainable urban logistics, taking into account urban development and distribution innovations.

Highlights

Economic growth necessitates flexible transportation to ease access to resources and trade markets [1]
Considerable research has focused on promoting sustainable urban freight transport (SUFT), which is commonly based on the conventional urban freight network
This paper presents a theoretical research framework of future sustainable urban freight transport while discussing appropriate methods

Summary

Introduction

Economic growth necessitates flexible transportation to ease access to resources and trade markets [1]. Urban freight activities have continually contributed to the economic growth of cities, they have caused the majority of environmental externalities within urban areas. These negative externalities primarily consist of air pollution, congestion, noise, etc. A conventional urban freight network generally consists of two types: single-tier and two-tier (as depicted by Figure 1) The former system is commonly used in small or medium-sized cities, and the two-tier system is more suitable for large/megacities [6,7]. It is noted that considerable research has paid little attention to the connections between freight transport and urban development [8] This result reveals that the research on SUFT lacks systematic consideration of city development from a long-term view. It is critical to the comprehensive consideration of city development and sustainable urban freight planning from a long-term view

Objectives

Methods

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Conclusion