Transport, Logistics and Urban Studies

Research focus

The Peer review has evaluated this group as Good

“Transport, Logistics and Urban Studies” is organised into three research subgroups: (i) Research Centre on Economics, Logistics and Territory (LabELT); (ii) Research Centre on Transport Policy (TRASPOL); (iii) Research Centre on Urban Design & Macro Scale Urban Studies. LabELT research group focuses on two main themes: “Localization and Regional Development” and “Logistics and Territory”. The first aims at investigating: - the role played by the location and relocation of industry and services in enhancing the development of the local economic systems (clusters, industrial districts) (publ. 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 14, 20, 31); - the role played by regional policy tools in promoting regional development (PI2; publ. 12, 21, 26, 28, 36, 43); - the internationalisation strategies undertaken by the Italian manufacturing firms in the last two decades and their impact on the home economy (publ. 2, 8, 13, 15, 37) The purpose of the second theme is to analyse: - the impact of infrastructures and the logistics sector on regional and local economic systems (publ. 1, 30); - the technical/economical feasibility analysis of waterways (PI1, publ. 35); - the evolution of the logistics industry and the development of an organisational model for the logistics industry (P I4, P I6, P I7; publ. 6, 7, 17, 18, 27, 29, 39, 40, 41); - the Logistics Cost Approach by McCann (1993; 1998) and apply it in a joint project with Prof. Philip McCann, University of Waikato (NZ) and University of Reading (UK); - city logistics (P I5; publ. 19, 23, 24); - the internationalisation process undertaken by logistics firms in Italy (PI3); - the impact of internationalisation by manufacturing firms on the logistics sector, both at firm and industrial district levels (publ. 32, 33); - mobility management and the transport demand management (publ. 9, 16, 38, 42). TRASPOL research group focuses on economic and engineering issues starting from a inter-discipline approach. The economic approach is largely based on the microeconomic theory, being consumer surplus and optimisation criteria the main drivers. Nevertheless, also macroeconomic elements are introduced. Moreover, the theoretical approach derived from the public choice theory is adopted in order to analyse the strategic behaviour of actors of the decisional process (asymmetric information, egoistic behaviour, rent seeking and capture phenomena, etc). In particular, the activity of the research group tackles the following items: - transport economics: project evaluation (cost benefit analysis, multicriteria analysis, ranking systems, integrated system dynamics models, limits of the evaluation processes); cost benefit analysis for transport projects and policies; financing schemes for transport infrastructure; average cost versus marginal social cost pricing (PII11, PII13). 15 0 - Transport costs: environment and energy economics; operative cost for vehicles and infrastructure; external costs and their safety in transport (PII4, PII10). - Transport planning at city, region and country levels; integrated transport and land use strategic planning; transport and land rent; planning and design of local transport networks (PII3, PII5, PII6, PII7, PII12, PII13, PII14, PII15). - Transport regulation and liberalisation: regulation of public transport services and infrastructures; theory of regulation techniques; theoretical advancements; unbundling between infrastructure and services; competition for the market in the railway and airline industry (PII1, PII2, PII9, PII11). - Equity and efficiency trade-offs in transport: equity and efficiency effects in transport; public transport fares and subsidies; earmarked versus non-earmarked transfers (subsidies). - Statistical studies: construction and analysis of historical trends; statistical and quantitative analysis of data; definition and evaluation of future trends (PII4, PII10). The main thrust of the Research Centre on Urban Design & Macro Scale Urban Studies is to define the components of a town planning project in relation to the project as a whole: i.e. its dynamic relationship with the global urban event and a historical awareness of its context, with its elements of architectonics and landscape (publ. 89, 92, 94, 95). This is reflected in the sizing of the intervention, and its symbolic and functional definition, and also specified in the definition of the buildings and open spaces making up its plani-volumetric organisation, and the project coordinates that allow the architectonic design to be developed in line with the more general characteristics of a structural urban plan. The laboratory verifies the possibility of a town planning approach that takes into account the role played by the vaster construction of the city and its overall form, permeated by a strong sense of history and memory while being attentive to ongoing processes of transformation and the quality of the urban landscape it offers within the context in which it operates.

Dipartimento di afferenza

Dipartimento di Architettura e Pianificazione (DIAP)

Docenti afferenti

Full Professors
Flavio Boscacci
Marco Ponti
Associate Professors
Maria Luisa Faravelli
Giorgio Goggi (on leave from september 1998 to may 2006)
Giuseppe Passoni (Diiar)
Assistant Professors
Gian Paolo Corda