GIS based technologies in urban transportation planning and modelling

Abstract

Effectiveness of urban areas transport system development is the key factor for attaining sustainable development. Misguided urban areas development scenario gives growing travel costs, bigger energy consumption, raised travel times. A Transport Model is a computer-based representation of the movement of people and goods (trips) around a transport network within a defined study areas having certain socio-economic and land-use characteristics. It is intended to provide a indication of how trips will respond, over time, to changes in transport supply and demand. The outputs from a Transport Model can provide essential insight into the understanding of an existing or future transport problem, thereby supporting infrastructure design and operational planning. GIS technology offers extremely significant power in transport modeling. The spread of GIS use facilitates the efficient and portable spatial data storage, updating and processing. In addition, a GIS system facilitates model accessibility, database maintenance and updating, and cartographic display of model results. This paper considers how the potential offered by modelling can be turned into reality.