Governance of land-use development and urban freight transport

In the urban planning process, the role of urban freight movement has often been ignored and the goods distribution theme is widely underrepresented in regional science, urban governance and geographical research. However, more recent studies stress the importance of the role of city planning for urban freight movement. Indeed land-use factors have important influences on freight activity in urban areas and land-use decisions affect the design and management of supply chains, including the location of facilities and the position and intensity of demand for freight movements. Another critical aspect regards the separation of freight distribution mobility and shopping mobility in city logistics and traffic planning. Local administrators are looking at city logistics measures in order to reduce the negative impacts of urban freight transport, using mainly tactical and operational city logistics measures: the two segments of mobility are independently managed through restocking freight demand management (e.g. time windows, loading/unloading areas, emission constraints) and shopping travel demand management (e.g. parking fees, access constraints). Starting from this consideration, this study starts from the hypothesis that land-use strategies have to be considered by city logistics planners in order to minimize total transportation costs in terms of both freight restocking and shopping mobility. Within a transport - land use integrated approach for freight mobility, in this paper we examine the effects of end-consumer behaviour (e.g. choice of retail type and transport mode) and location of retail outlets (e.g. small, medium and large retail outlets) and restocking centers (e.g. warehouses and distribution centers) upon urban freight mobility. Further, we explore how urban transformations can be planned and managed to reduce the externalities of freight transport, in order to achieve goals of urban sustainability. In particular, the study seeks to answer the following questions, taking into account that an “optimum scenario” cannot be defined in absolute terms: − How can land use planning reduce the externalities of freight transport, in order to achieve the goals of city sustainability, in terms of spatial distribution of urban goods facilities? − What strategies and policies should be implemented to address the sustainable location of urban goods activities? − What are the impacts of land-use planning policies on end-consumer behaviour (e.g. choice of retail type and transport mode) and freight distribution flows? The paper starts by proposing an overview of recent developments concerning the role of freight movements in the urban planning process and analyses the objectives and strategies of city planners, supply-chain actors, retailers and end-consumers in the freight sector. We then present a scenario assessment method able to compare different land-use scenarios and to define an optimal spatial distribution of urban freight facilities (e.g. shopping malls, warehouses, distribution centers) in order to improve city sustainability and meet the interests of end consumers, freight operators and society. Finally, the results of the simulation for a test site of three land-use scenarios are proposed and analysed.