RICERCA ITALIANA     

Research program

Mediterranean Spaces and Cultures. Measurement, Analysis, Comprehension, Evaluation and History for the Knowledge and Monitoring of Transformative Processes in the Mediterranean Area.

University Co-ordinator

Università degli Studi di NAPOLI "Federico II" - INGEGNERIA DEI TRASPORTI - NAPOLI(NA)

Research Unit Leader

Vincenzo TORRIERI

Description

Subject of the research

All exposed in the 2.4 point highlights the need of dynamic instruments for the control of the transformation process of the land-use and the mobility system, based on generally accepted and normalized methodologies.
The subject of the present research project is the setting up and the experimentation, on a sample area, of methods, techniques and procedures addressed to the building of a dynamic observatory of the territorial transformations. The observatory is addressed to analyse the linkages between use of the physical space and implementation / adaptation of transport infrastructures and to define the evolutionary trajectories ensued from specific changes in the mobility system.
The observatory intends to become a handling structure in the building of mobility policies, with an action range extended to the whole Mediterranean Basin and to the Countries part of it, especially those of the south-east shore.
The innovative peculiarity of this research program, rather then in the proposition of new methodologies, is in the integration of analysis methods and synthesis techniques of the whole land-use/transport system and in the verification of the relative capacity of interpreting the evolution processes.

Aims

The observatory pursues the strategical aim of the dynamic evaluation in land-use in relation to the various phases for the realization of a mobility infrastructure. Each phase will have dynamically variable impacts on the land-use; the impacts are classifiable, with a temporal indicator, as interim or extended impacts.
Operational aims will be:
– to observe the state of the territory and of the mobility infrastructures by means of use and congestion indicators;
– to size the phenomena in progress on the territory (concentration or rarefaction phenomena) and on the connected infrastructures (congestion phenomena in the use of specific sections); to relate them by means of critical indicators holding in consideration the close connection between settlements and mobility;
– to analyze dynamically the modifications in the general characteristics of the territory in relation to the impacts of specific project choices. The aim is characterizing the critical points in the analyzed space and determining choices based on effectiveness of the investments and of the outcomes;
– to put forward actions and to provide mounts for the control of the processes of territorial transformation connected with the modifications of the mobility system.


Steps for the implementation of the research

The implementation of the research project will happen according to the following steps:
1) analysis of the scientific literature related to the transport research field and to the urban and country planning: research and deepening of studies, projects, best practices and applicatory software packs;
2) selection of parameters and indicators system able to clarify the dynamic problems connected with the investigation fields, on the basis of total effectiveness considerations;
3) construction of a methodology of analysis of the existing connections between the transport system and the territorial system; implementation of process control strategies of the spatial transformations based on the optimization of the process control of the transformation changes with a close control of an objective function dependent by the representative system's variables;
4) choice of a territorial sample area: practice to this test area and verify of the former processes of the methodology set up in the previous step;
5) methodological build of an applicatory pack employable in other areas; scientific diffusion of the pack and application to specific areas of the Mediterranean Basin.
A particular attention holds the second step of the research project. It assumes that the used indicators can be organized in three systems, each one connected with specific spatial and functional characteristics:
– the accessibility characteristics. Specifically connected with parameters of infrastructural equipment and of the mobility network characteristics as current in a territory;
– the attraction characteristics. Specifically connected with parameters of fuctional equipment of the territory; they are dependent from the mobility network because their efficiency is widely function of the lightness to reach them, that is of the movement costs;
– the transformability characteristics. Specifically connected with parameters of physical equipment of the territory, connected to the space use (residential, productive, agricultural, …) and to the quality aspects (sheltered areas, landscapes, natural areas, binded areas, …).


Attempted advancements

Task of the observatory is to appoint a system of process control based on steady analysis of the critical potential situations on a territory. The control system comes down from a continuous attention of the territorial transformations and represents the way for obtaining a more precise characterization of the causes unchaining the engorgement processes of the mobility infrastructures.
The implementation of the observatory is based on the building of dynamic relations between territory and mobility by means of the characteristics of accessibility, attraction and transformability. Each one of them, in autonomy, is fully analyzed and the advancements are very interesting: in particular, referring to the impacts of the planning politics on the behaviours connected with the mobility and to the impacts of the transport politics on the new physical and functional localizations.
Nevertheless, the linkages among the three characteristics are often overflown, especially for the dynamic aspects of the impacts of great equipments and infrastructural networks.
The observatory put itself as side for to analyse the transformation phenomena, before, in itinere and after the implementation. The key is the continuous learning and the adaptation of the decision system to the observed phenomena; in this way it represents an instrument addressed to the coordination of the politics of urban and country planning and of transport planning.
In the integrated land-use/transport models the main regard is cheafly connected with the transport system, while the territorial system is analysed as homogeneous space on which actors and institutions act. Really the territory is not an homogeneous space and it can not be discussed only as device of an economic balance in which the localization of fellows, families and activities is due to the network and congests it.
Moreover, it is essential to consider that the traditional view of spatial planning is static, while a vision addressed to the analysis of territorial evolution is dynamic and it is careful whether to the harmonization of the interests or to the coherence of the outcomes.
The territory is highly anisotropic. It is characterized by different variable bonds and has a transformation speed very diversified in relation to the different components of it.
After the project realization we expect to verify the effective observatory's capability of building and calibrate an integrated land-use/transport model, which is not based on a priori positions, but on the analysis of dynamic changes present on a territory.

Project achievement

The research project of the unit of Naples founds the possibility to achieve the aims on the following aspects:
1. regarding the competence of the research group, it is to underline the involvement of considerable researchers in the transport and in the spatial planning. The expertise of the research group is acting in other research. Around the core sectors, further, other competences are present: for example, statistic researchers;
2. regarding the instrumental equipment, the research group is held with relevant hardware and software equipments. They allow an easy development of the programme and will concur to the achievement of the prefigured aims. Moreover, the research group is able to use the instruments and, then, they are sharp employable for the research;
3. the activity of the research group in other project increases the crossover potentiality of application of the research's results; the reason is to search in the development of system's actions and in the application in a test area.
It is to underline finally that the research group is involved in various research activities coherent with the program of the Regional Centre of Competence on Transports, funding by Campania Region.


Methods and techniques

Beginning from the state of the art about the integrated land-use/transport models, the research project want to deepen the implementation of dynamic mathematic models connecting the territory with the transport system. In this model the territorial transformations are based not only on economic reflections, but also on qualitative and physic reflections, however dynamically considered.
On the basis of given scenarios, the observatory will have the function to define and to apply the better techniques for selecting, analysing and applying the system's indicators. Therefore, its interest is not many focused on scenario's aspects as on the evaluation of the dynamic and territorial consequences of their fulfilment.
The need to finalize the research on the construction of a product requires the use of known products in the research's sectors. To this aim the employable software are:
– for the statistical analysis: SAS;
– for the transport analysis and the derived models: TRANSCAD;
– for the territorial analysis: ARCGIS or other GIS software.
Beginning from the enumerated software, the observatory will build an applicative instrument, based on existing techniques, addressed to the realization of an innovative product that is the process control in a multi-sectorial research space in which, for cultural previous reasons, dynamic and evolutionary procedures are not applied. These procedures, properly tested, can assume great importance in an effective control of the transformation processes.