Abstract
Poor logistics efficiency, due to low load factors caused by high demand fragmentation, will have relevant negative consequences for cities in terms of pollution, congestion and overall city liveability. Policy-makers should equip themselves with appropriate tools to perform reliable, comprehensive and timely analyses of urban logistics scenarios, also considering upcoming (i) technological changes, (ii) business model evolutions and (iii) spatial-temporal changes these innovations will produce. This paper discusses the Digital Twin (DT) concept, illustrating the role it might play and clarifying how to properly conceive it with respect to urban freight transport policy-making and planning. The main message is that without a sound theory and knowledge with respect to the relationships linking contextual reality and choice/behaviour, it is not possible to make sense of what happens in the real world. Therefore, the joint use of behavioural and simulation models should characterise a DT within a Living Lab approach so to stimulate effective, well-informed and participated planning processes, but also to forecast both behaviour and reactions to structural changes and policy measures implementations.
Highlights
All models are wrong, but some are useful
The paper unfolds in different sections: Section 2 describes the role played by policy-makers and the most appropriate tools they have to deal with the challenges they are facing, pointing out the relevance of Digital Twin (DT) and how they innovate with respect to the current methods; Section 3 illustrates (i) the various definition of a DT, (ii) its structure and use in different fields and (iii) its modelling characteristics; Section 4 provides a detailed discussion on the opportunities and constraints of DT applicability to urban freight policy-making and planning; Section 5 concludes pointing to fruitful future research paths
These are in turns intertwined with the Living Lab approach, which accounts for stakeholder involvement in the planning process, and on behavioural models capable of predicting the impact of different scenarios on stakeholder behaviours and choices
Summary
Urban freight transport is vital for cities while being responsible of many externalities. As far as we know, such a perspective, in which we link central premises of the DT model with conditions for urban freight planning, has not been published before To this end, the paper unfolds in different sections: Section 2 describes the role played by policy-makers and the most appropriate tools they have to deal with the challenges they are facing, pointing out the relevance of DTs and how they innovate with respect to the current methods; Section 3 illustrates (i) the various definition of a DT, (ii) its structure and use in different fields and (iii) its modelling characteristics; Section 4 provides a detailed discussion on the opportunities and constraints of DT applicability to urban freight policy-making and planning; Section 5 concludes pointing to fruitful future research paths. This exploratory research is both new and needed to understand how DTs might influence and progressively change the way decisions are made in the field of urban freight transport
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