Modern Road Network Research Articles

Cultural heritage sites risk assessment based on RS and GIS—takes the Fortified Manors of yongtai as an example

As the carrier of history and culture, cultural heritage has outstanding value and is increasingly vulnerable to natural hazards and anthropogenic changes. The research on the risk of cultural heritage sites around the world is becoming more and more mature, but the research on Chinese cultural heritage sites is inadequate. The purpose of this study is to fill the gap in the research on multi-disaster risk assessment of cultural heritage sites in China and to propose an integrated approach to risk assessment based on Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) for the protection and development of cultural heritage. This study identified six threats to cultural heritage sites: landslides, floods, erosion, urban sprawl, fires, and modern road networks. Taking Fortified Manors of Yongtai, Fujian Province, China as the research object, this study collected historical satellite images, relevant remote sensing, and thematic data, used GIS technology to establish a basic spatial database, and constructed a risk assessment system in the study area using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Certainty Factor (CF) model. The risk of Fortified Manors of Yongtai was divided into five levels: extremely low risk, low risk, medium risk, high risk, and extremely high risk. It is found that most of the Fortified Manors are in high risk or above, accounting for 69.28%, indicating that most of them are in a very dangerous environment, and it is urgent to take measures to monitor and protect them.

Effect of Quality and Quantity of Locally Produced Filler on Moisture Damage Hot Asphaltic Mixtures

The modern road network is of the most important requirements of the present life. The filler is regarded as one of its major components, and it has great importance in the mixture. When improving its properties and specifications, the hot mixing properties of the asphalt mix are improved . The results of the tests conducted for this research showed that the addition of 1.5% H.L to the control mixture led to a significant increase in the stability of Marshall and air voids, with a rise in (20.4 and 7%), respectively, with an increase in the optimum asphalt content. Moreover, the increase in the tensile strength ratio (TSR) was at the same rate and amounted to 13.6% when compared to the control mixture. The mixtures containing cement kiln dust also led to an increase in the stability of Marshall and air voids. The most significant increase was when replacing it by 50% (23.5 and 6%), respectively, with an increase in the asphalt content. The ratio of indirect tensile strength to tensile strength when CKD is 25% and 50% increases by (6.4% and 12.3%) respectively. These properties deteriorate when the cement kiln dust content increases or hydrated lime increases.

Reconsidering the morphological understanding of traditional Chinese cities: a study of the early spatial modernization of Suzhou, 1880–1949

Based on the mapping of nine historical maps of the ancient capital of Suzhou from 1880 to 1949, this paper examines the early spatial modernization of Suzhou in the late-Qing and Republican eras. The mapping is interpreted as four periods to provide a coherent narrative for the spatial transformation of Suzhou, following a discussion of its historico-geographical features and morphological influences that define the course of the city’s modernity by extracting three key components: the modern road network, public building utilizations of significant modernity, and the growth and fringe of built-up areas. To do so the paper draws upon current debates on the feasibility of urban morphological study of Chinese cities in early-modern times, particularly the idea that applications of typical urban morphological approaches are more limited than those of comparable studies in Europe, to provide a new approach to observe the morphological features and spatial cognition of Chinese traditional cities.

Reconsidering the morphological understanding of traditional Chinese cities: a study of the early spatial modernization of Suzhou, 1880–1949

Based on the mapping of nine historical maps of the ancient capital of Suzhou from 1880 to 1949, this paper examines the early spatial modernization of Suzhou in the late-Qing and Republican eras. The mapping is interpreted as four periods to provide a coherent narrative for the spatial transformation of Suzhou, following a discussion of its historico-geographical features and morphological influences that define the course of the city’s modernity by extracting three key components: the modern road network, public building utilizations of significant modernity, and the growth and fringe of built-up areas. To do so the paper draws upon current debates on the feasibility of urban morphological study of Chinese cities in early-modern times, particularly the idea that applications of typical urban morphological approaches are more limited than those of comparable studies in Europe, to provide a new approach to observe the morphological features and spatial cognition of Chinese traditional cities.

Column generation for the equilibrium route-flow traffic assignment problem

Today efficient traffic management seems to be impossible without the support of the artificial intelligence systems based on mathematical models of traffic flow assignment since a modern road network is a large-scale system with huge amounts of elements. The present paper is devoted to the route-flow traffic assignment problem, which solution is the most valuable from decision-making perspectives. The paper aims to fill the gap in the relation between the column generation process and the uniqueness of the equilibrium route-flow traffic assignment pattern. The independence of routes is showed to be highly significant when travel time functions are arc-additive. Indeed, on the one hand, the independence of routes is proved to guarantee the uniqueness of the equilibrium route-flow traffic assignment pattern. On the other hand, the independence of routes appears to be crucial for column generation when solving the route-flow traffic assignment problem since the equilibrium travel time is proven to be decreased only by adding independent candidate route. Obtained results contribute to the development of algorithms for route-flow traffic assignment based on travel times equilibration procedure.

Развитие дорожной инфраструктуры Курской области в годы VIII и IX пятилеток (1966–1975 годы)

Relevance. The formation of a network of roads is one of the key conditions for the successful development of the country as a whole and individual regions in particular. Historical experience has shown that it is most profitable to move goods and people over long distances by land at the lowest cost by rail. But for the successful formation of transport logistics within the region, it is necessary to focus on the development of road communications. This is especially true for such a relatively small region as the Kursk region, where there are significant problems in the operation and maintenance of the road network. The period of the VIII and IX five-year plans is one of the most important in the history of the formation of the region's road network. At this time, a hard surface is being laid on almost all key highways of the region, and the formation of a modern road network is underway. Understanding the problems faced by road builders during the period under study makes it possible to understand in more detail the problems of the functioning of the modern road network of the Kursk region. The purpose. Show the main stages of the formation of the road infrastructure of the Kursk region in 1966–1975. Objectives: based on the study of a complex of historical sources to analyze the problems that the Kursk region faced when creating road infrastructure in 1966-1975, to reveal the found ways to solve these problems. Methodology. When writing the work, the author relied on the fundamental methods of historical science (the principles of historicism and objectivity), as well as on a number of specific historical and general scientific methods (analytical, comparative historical, etc.). Results. The absence of a regional complex of historiography on this issue indicates an insufficient study of the issue. This work not only introduces into scientific circulation the collected empirical material on the history of the de-velopment of road infrastructure, but also shows the main directions of this process. Conclusion. The creation of a network of roads and the formation of a developed road infrastructure in the Kursk region during the VIII and IX five-year plans served as a serious basis for the further economic development of the region, as well as for increasing the mobility of citizens by, first of all, improving the quality of road transport.

Intersections at different levels - an alternative solution to the development of the road network

Modern road network should provide conditions for safe and comfortable movement, both for drivers and for pedestrians. Transport industry development specialists face such transport problem as the low capacity of the road network. Low capacity causes congestion in the road network, disruptions in the organization of normal traffic flow, traffic jams, an increase in the number of traffic accidents. One way to solve this transportation problem is to use alternative solutions when designing. These solutions include constructing the intersections at different levels. The aim of the study is to compile data on alternative diamond-shaped intersections at different levels with a change in the side of movement. The main results of the study are that at the moment there are three schemes of a diamond-shaped intersection with a change in the side of the movement. These types of intersections have a smaller number of conflict points, compared with the intersection of the diamond type. The experience in the operation of road sections with diamond intersections showed a decrease in accident rates. Cyclists and pedestrians can use the junctions as well. The results of the study give an idea of the level of design of alternative types of intersections abroad. Considered interchanges can be used not only when at crossings of high-category roads, but also in cities, in the conditions of the existing development.

PlanLight: Learning to Optimize Traffic Signal Control With Planning and Iterative Policy Improvement

Intelligent traffic signal control (TSC) is essential for transportation efficiency in modern road networks. There is an emerging trend of using deep reinforcement learning techniques to train TSC models in simulators for reducing trial-and-error in real-world scenarios, and recent studies have shown promising results. The target of TSC is to minimize the average travel time of a given area. However, it is impractical to directly optimize the target by setting the average travel time as the reward function due to its nature of feedback latency and difficulty on credit assignment. Existing methods often define the reward function in a heuristic way, which may cause a biased optimization on the real target as they only optimize the accumulative reward. In this work, we propose PlanLight, a novel planning-based TSC algorithm that learns from the demonstration of rollout algorithm, which obtains suboptimal control on the given target, through behavior cloning. We show the effectiveness and efficiency of the rollout algorithm in the multi-intersection control scenario. Moreover, we achieve further policy optimization by improving the base policy in the rollout procedure iteratively. Through comprehensive experiments, we demonstrate that PlanLight outperforms both conventional transportation approaches and existing learning-based methods in various sizes of traffic datasets. Furthermore, we empirically show the potential of PlanLight to be a general algorithm to obtain improvement on future state-of-the-art TSC methods.

Визначення фізико-механічних властивостей дорожніх бітумів, модифікованих епоксидом соняшникової олії

Експериментально доведено, що модифікація дорожніх бітумів з допомогою епоксиду соняшникової олії веде до зміни фізико-механічних властивостей модифікованого бітуму, таких як: пенетрація, температура розм'якшення, дуктильність, температура крихкості.

Hierarchical Sarsa Learning Based Route Guidance Algorithm

In modern society, route guidance problems can be found everywhere. Reinforcement learning models can be normally used to solve such kind of problems; particularly, Sarsa Learning is suitable for tackling with dynamic route guidance problem. But how to solve the large state space of digital road network is a challenge for Sarsa Learning, which is very common due to the large scale of modern road network. In this study, the hierarchical Sarsa learning based route guidance algorithm (HSLRG) is proposed to guide vehicles in the large scale road network, in which, by decomposing the route guidance task, the state space of route guidance system can be reduced. In this method, Multilevel Network method is introduced, and Differential Evolution based clustering method is adopted to optimize the multilevel road network structure. The proposed algorithm was simulated with several different scale road networks; the experiment results show that, in the large scale road networks, the proposed method can greatly enhance the efficiency of the dynamic route guidance system.

Trucks and Animal-Powered Vehicles: A Process of Replacement or a Competition Towards Displacement?

Statistical data for Austria in the interwar period show that motorization led to a continuous increase in the number of trucks. This development was a result of the growth in works transport (which is not investigated in this article) and of the emergence of commercial road haulage companies which began to use trucks instead of animal-powered vehicles. Despite the significance of horse-driven vehicles at the time, it is striking that little information exists relating to this shift. This article therefore focuses, firstly, on an analysis of reasons behind the replacement of animal-powered vehicles by trucks and, secondly, on the development of the carrier trade in the interwar period. With the rise of motorization, it became a competitor to Austrian Federal Railways, which sought to restrict competition by initiating legislative regulations, including minimum cargo rates and limiting permitted transport distances through the “Lastkraftwagenverkehrsverordnung” (truck transportation regulation) in 1933. It also imposed restrictions on membership of “Rona”, an association founded in 1935, which comprised the Austrian Federal Railways as well as the carriers. The development of a modern road network in Austria as a precondition for the development of a modern transport system is also outlined in this paper.

Considerations on the role of modernizing the road infrastructure in the prevention of road accidents

The realizing and improvement of road infrastructure, of modern road networks provides normal, safe and pleasant road traffic conditions and also help prevent road accidents. The road network, with its constructive characteristics, has to offer optimal conditions for the movement of vehicles, pedestrians and other categories of participants in the road traffic. Starting from the case study of a road sector with heavy road traffic, the current paper analyzes the increase in road safety in Romanian localities along European and national roads through the implementation of specific measures such as setting up sidewalks, installing New Jersey median barriers, expanding the road sectors with 2+1 lanes, replacing normal pedestrian crossings with elevated crossings or with pedestrian crossing with mid-road waiting areas etc.

Emergency Corridors - Necessary Solutions in a Modern Road Network

Poland was a place of dynamic road network development in the 20th century. Many expressways and highways were built. Along with the development of the road network, there was a need to introduce new solutions which would be friendly to emergency services. The most important factor influencing the chances of accident victim survival is the time in which first aid will be administered. Reaching the victim is the primary problem for emergency services in case of road incidents. Driver behavior plays an important role, as they have significant effect on emergency service travel times. The emergency corridor is the solution ensuring quick and safe access to expressways and motorways. Examples from Polish roads in 2017 demonstrate that not all drivers are able to behave properly when emergency services move trying to access the accident site (cases of blocking, driving the wrong way through the corridor, etc.). It cannot be clearly assumed that drivers have bad intentions. According to the authors, the problem lies in education, access to information, and lack of regulatory policies. In Austria, Germany and Hungary, a great deal of resources has been devoted to information campaigns on safe behavior in the event of road accidents, and a number of legal provisions have developed allowing the police to ensure that these rules are respected.

Distributed dynamic lane reversal and rerouting for traffic delay reduction

ABSTRACTTraffic congestion is a major source of delays in modern road networks. Motivated by this, we propose two distributed algorithms to reduce delays: a dynamic lane reversal algorithm and a rerouting algorithm. When there is a density imbalance on a road, time can be saved by reallocating lanes from the less dense side to the more dense side, which motivates dynamic lane reversal. When a road has greater density than nearby roads, time can be saved by redirecting flow into the least congested roads, this motivates dynamic rerouting. Given a communication system between infrastructure and vehicles on the road, the local state of the network can be approximated and utilised by the algorithms to minimise travel time. In order to provide a better fundamental understanding of the system dynamics, we analyse equilibrium conditions for the system and prove convergence of the lane reversal algorithm to a critical point. Overall performance is also examined in simulation.

A landscape project for the coexistence of agriculture and nature: a proposal for the coastal area of a Natura 2000 site in Sicily (Italy)

Many rural coastal Mediterranean areas suffer from great anthropomorphic pressure. This is due to intensive agriculture, and construction for residential, tourism and industrial uses. The present work investigates the idea of using a landscape project in the Gulf of Gela in South Sicily to recover the dunes and the area behind them. The method used is based on the literature and will evaluate and interpret the dynamics of the landscape, so as to draw up a landscape plan, which can be used to help sustain the assets of the area, in a way, which is compatible with conserving nature. This method was tested in the <em>LIFE11-Leopoldia project</em>, funded by the European Union. The results of the study form part of the landscape project. This project is aimed at connecting the different productive zones in the area, protecting the natural environments and the rural historical patrimony, through combining the modern road networks with the older slower, historic infrastructure. Three different levels of landscape management are proposed: total protection (the dunes), high-level protection (the area behind the dunes where traditional agriculture is practised, buffer areas and ecological connecting areas), medium levels of protection (sustainable agriculture, <em>green</em> connections and ecological corridors). The key aims of the project are as follows: <em>transversality</em> - repairing the agricultural fabric and the relationship between the land and the sea; <em>sustainability</em> - recovering the environmental system and traditional activities; <em>flexibility</em> - agriculture with only minor environmental impact.

From improvements in accessibility to the impact on territorial cohesion: the spatial approach

During the last decade, Poland has experienced a big push in road network development. As a result, the fundamentals of the modern road network have been established. This paper aims to recognize the consequences of changes in accessibility for territorial cohesion, analyzed simultaneously in national and international dimensions. The results provided show that similar spatial patterns and the overall scale of improvement in accessibility lead to entirely different impacts on the level of territorial cohesion. From the international perspective, the investments implemented have a strong positive cohesion impact, while from the national perspective a slight increase in regional polarization has been produced. Moreover, there was an adverse effect on territorial cohesion for almost 40 percent of Polish municipalities, depending on whether or not we include international destinations. The fact that analyses conducted in the national and international dimension yielded opposite results supports the presented approach of a multidimensional evaluation of transport network development.

From “Cesspool” to “The Greatest Improvement of Its Kind”

Wacker Drive is a staple of Chicago’s modern road network, allowing two levels of cars to zip along the Chicago River and connect to nearby highways and streets. The roots of this driving experience date to 1909, when Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett proposed a comprehensive network of riverside boulevards in their Plan of Chicago. Engineered for traffic efficiency and draped with Beaux Arts garb, Wacker Drive introduced a new functional and architectural rationale to the riverfront. Charting its evolution from a casual idea to one of the Plan’s major accomplishments, this article positions Wacker Drive as an agent of architectural and civic change for Chicago.

Spreading the Load: The Management of Heritage Timber Truss Bridges in the NSW Road Network

The use of timber in bridge construction was prevalent throughout NSW in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, leading the state to be dubbed the “Timber Truss Bridge State”. Over the period c.1880-1930 over 400 timber truss bridges were constructed throughout the state, opening up traffic for trade and settlement and providing river crossings in often remote and inaccessible areas, using readily available local materials. Built to a load standard of approximately 15 tonnes, the remaining bridges within the NSW road network are now regularly subjected to loads of 45 tonnes or greater, with pressure to further increase freight limits. How then can such bridges be managed within the context of the demands of a modern road network, where it is not always possible to upgrade the bridge or divert traffic? This paper examines a strategic management process developed by the author with the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority to assess the ongoing suitability of the remaining portfolio of 48 timber truss bridges and develop a long-term management strategy which is sustainable from a cost and operations perspective, while ensuring a representative selection of these important engineering heritage assets are retained within the road network. This framework has served as the basis for negotiations with the Heritage Council of NSW to ensure that a selection of bridges can be conserved into the future.

Spreading the load: The management of heritage timber truss bridges in the NSW road network

AbstractThe use of timber in bridge construction was prevalent throughout NSW in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, leading the state to be dubbed the “Timber Truss Bridge State”. Over the period c.1880-1930 over 400 timber truss bridges were constructed throughout the state, opening up traffic for trade and settlement and providing river crossings in often remote and inaccessible areas, using readily available local materials. Built to a load standard of approximately 15 tonnes, the remaining bridges within the NSW road network are now regularly subjected to loads of 45 tonnes or greater, with pressure to further increase freight limits. How then can such bridges be managed within the context of the demands of a modern road network, where it is not always possible to upgrade the bridge or divert traffic? This paper examines a strategic management process developed by the author with the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority to assess the ongoing suitability of the remaining portfolio of 48 timber truss br...

Online non destructive archaeology; the archaeological park of Egnazia (Southern Italy) study case

In summer 2009 a high resolution magnetic survey was executed inside the archaeological park of Egnazia (Southern Italy) for the subsurface mapping of buried features (“invisible archaeology”). Furthermore, a database was implemented in order to collect already-published data concerning the important excavated areas (“visible archaeology”). The magnetic maps provided a detailed plan as well as the geometry of the subterranean structures: with the aim of exploiting at best the capability of this important information, geophysical data were inserted into a Geographical Information System (GIS) comprising both other available spatial data (satellite image, aerial oblique photos, etc…) and some records of the database (i.e. photos of the main excavated structures, short descriptions, archaeological monographs, etc…). The information system, which was emulated and shared online at www.gisonda.it, supplies a synoptic multi-layered view of the area where the visible and invisible archaeology show their mutual relationships and the complex interactions both with elements of the landscape and the actual human activities (i.e. the modern road network, the coast line, etc…). Within this integrated information tool, the “invisible archaeology” detected through the non invasive survey, offers fundamental information to improve the scientific knowledge on the ancient settlement in a landscape framework. At the same time, it appears clear how remotely-sensed data revealing the presence of buried features can play a strategic role both in the decision-making process and local policies, thus rendering the Archaeological Heritage (AH) management more effective in terms of scientific, social and economic assets. This important challenge could be better achieved if all the information gained were shared and accessible (in a free and/or protected mode) to whoever interested (archaeologists, universities and research institutions, superintendeces, public administrations, private enterprises, etc.). The actual work represents a pilot project aimed at extending systematically the above described activities to the study and management of AH in the whole Apulia region.