Submit to Sustainability Review for Sustainability Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Dynamic Trans-Sino-Europe Transport Networks and Their Impacts on Sustainable Goals (UNSDGs)

Print Special Issue Flyer
Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Keywords
Published Papers

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Transportation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2023) | Viewed by 15059

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Zhihong Jin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Colleage of Transportation Engineering, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China
Interests: transportation engineering; complex networks; system dynamics

Dr. Xiaoning Shi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Institute of Information Systems (IWI), University of Hamburg, Von-Melle-Park 5, 200146 Hamburg, Germany
Interests: transportation; game theory; complex networks; port operation; maritime shipping; smart city

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The theme of this Special Issue (SI) is ‘Dynamic Trans-Sino-Europe Transport Networks and Their Impacts on Sustainable Goals (UNSDGs)’.

Considering the fact that cargo transport between China and Europe changes dramatically in 2020, the scope of this SI is, but not limited to, the following factors

Dynamics in terms of volume, direction, modal shifts
Evolutionary structures of transport networks
Emerging links and nodes in the transport networks
Time factors, technological and economic aspects of trans-modalities
Categories of cargoes, values, and affordabilities to associated services
Empty container relocation challenges during the Pandemic
Synchronization of cargo flows at sea, via rail and road
Roadmap and implementations of SDGs in the transport industry

Continental transport networks are indispensable to the economic vitality and growth of different regions. Over the years, international transportation systems have been evolved significantly—in terms of both quality and extent. A recent spur in technologies such as automation, time management, and connectivity has added to the new standards and high expectations of the network’s function and operation.

The purpose of this SI is to address transport networks’ dynamics in this new norm, to investigate their evolutionary features. Meanwhile, to support and update our understanding of how various technologies, purposes and entities in continental transport network serve society’s sustainability efforts, as well as analyzing their impacts on global sustainabilities. Amplify practical applications, deepen industrial insights, and so on, which are related to international transportation—whether through railroad, highway, air, or sea—toward a sustainable society are also welcome. Scholars supplying existing literature topics on transportation and sustainability could also fit into this Special Issue publication.

Prof. Dr. Zhihong Jin
Dr. Xiaoning Shi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

complex networks
modal shift
trans-modalities
synchronized modalities
evolutionary transport network

Published Papers (6 papers)

Download All Papers

Order results

Result details

Show export options Show export options

Select all

Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

24 pages, 40961 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Trends in Emission Inventory of Marine Traffic for Port of Haifa

by Elyakim Ben-Hakoun, Eddy Van De Voorde and Yoram Shiftan

Sustainability 2022, 14(2), 908; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14020908 - 14 Jan 2022

Viewed by 2521

Abstract

Located in the Middle East, Haifa Port serves both local and international trade interests (from Asia, Europe, America, Africa, etc.). Due to its strategic location, the port is part of the Belt and Road initiative. This research investigates Haifa Port’s emissions contribution to the existing daily emission inventory level in the area. This research is based on a developed full bottom-up model framework that looks at the single vessel daily voyage through its port call stages. The main data sources for vessel movements used in this research are the Israel Navy’s movements log and the Israel Administration of Shipping and Ports’ (ASP) operational vessel movements and cargo log. The Fuel Consumption (FC) data and Sulfur Content (SC) levels are based on official Israel ASP survey data. The observation years in this research are 2010–2018, with a focus on the Ocean-Going Vessel (OGV) type only. The results show that the vessel fleet calling at Israel ports mainly comprises vessels that have a lower engine tier grade (i.e., Tier 0 and 1), which is considered a heavy contributor to nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution. The study recommends an additional cost charged (selective tariff) to reflect the external social cost linked to the single vessel air pollution combined with supportive technological infrastructure and economic incentive tools (e.g., electric subsidy) to attract or influence vessel owners to assign vessels equipped with new engine tier grades for calls at Israeli ports. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamic Trans-Sino-Europe Transport Networks and Their Impacts on Sustainable Goals (UNSDGs))

► Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 1539 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Lane Allocation Optimization in Container Seaport Gate System Considering Carbon Emissions

by Zhihong Jin, Xin Lin, Linlin Zang, Weiwei Liu and Xisheng Xiao

Sustainability 2021, 13(7), 3628; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13073628 - 24 Mar 2021

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2172

Abstract

Long queues of arrival trucks are a common problem in seaports, and thus, carbon emissions generated from trucks in the queue cause environmental pollution. In order to relieve gate congestion and reduce carbon emissions, this paper proposes a lane allocation framework combining the truck appointment system (TAS) for four types of trucks. Based on the distribution of arrival times obtained from the TAS, lane allocation decisions in each appointment period are determined in order to minimize the total cost, including the operation cost and carbon emissions cost. The resultant optimization model is a non-linear fractional integer program. This model was firstly transformed to an equivalent integer program with bilinear constraints. Then, an improved branch-and-bound algorithm was designed, which includes further transforming the program into a linear program using the McCormick approximation method and iteratively generating a tighter outer approximation along the branch-and-bound procedure. Numerical studies confirmed the validity of the proposed model and algorithm, while demonstrating that the lane allocation decisions could significantly reduce carbon emissions and operation costs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamic Trans-Sino-Europe Transport Networks and Their Impacts on Sustainable Goals (UNSDGs))

► Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 1068 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on the Optimization of Empty Container Repositioning of China Railway Express in Cooperation with International Liner Companies

by Lei Xing, Hong Yan, Yandong Yin and Qi Xu

Sustainability 2021, 13(6), 3182; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063182 - 14 Mar 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2633

Abstract

Both China Railway Express (CRE) companies and international liner companies are faced with the problem of empty container repositioning. In order to reduce empty container repositioning cost and realize their sustainable development, this paper studies the optimization problem of empty container repositioning under the condition of their cooperation. To minimize the cost, three optimization models of empty container repositioning are established, which are based on the single repositioning and cooperative repositioning. Numerical experiments are carried out to analyze the three empty container repositioning optimization models solved by CPLEX. The results show that the total cost could be greatly reduced by the cooperative repositioning. The effects of cooperation become more obvious with the unit storage cost or repositioning cost increases and become weaker with the unit mutual rental cost increase. When the demand fluctuation is in a certain range, the cooperation is still effective, which can reduce the cost. But when it is beyond a certain range, the benefits will be greatly reduced. In reality, for the sustainability of their cooperation, both sides should pay attention to the proportion of supply and demand and set reasonable mutual rental cost. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamic Trans-Sino-Europe Transport Networks and Their Impacts on Sustainable Goals (UNSDGs))

► Show Figures

Figure 1

19 pages, 7553 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Two-Echelon Dual-Channel Models for the Intermodal Container Terminals of the China Railway Express Considering Container Accumulation Modes

by Shujuan Guo, Cuijie Diao, Gang Li and Katsuhiko Takahashi

Sustainability 2021, 13(5), 2806; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052806 - 05 Mar 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2001

Abstract

China Railway Express (CR Express) is a pioneer of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. The intermodal container terminal system consisting of a maritime terminal and a railway terminal is investigated in this paper. It connects the shipping route and the CR Express route. Typically, there are two container accumulation modes in the railway terminal to dispatch a train, i.e., the fixed-length and the fixed-time container accumulation modes. The intermodal container terminal system can be formulated as the two-echelon dual-channel supply chain model. The steady-state probability matrix is obtained by solving the equilibrium equations. The cooperation between the maritime terminal and the railway terminal is considered to accelerate the accumulation of the containers. The total revenue of the two terminals is used as the key system performance indicator. Numerical experiments are conducted to compare the fixed-length and the fixed-time container accommodation modes. The situations with and without cooperation between two terminals are also compared in the two container accumulation modes, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamic Trans-Sino-Europe Transport Networks and Their Impacts on Sustainable Goals (UNSDGs))

► Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 600 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Inland Container Transportation Problem with Separation Mode Considering Carbon Dioxide Emissions

by Wenqing He, Zhihong Jin, Ying Huang and Shida Xu

Sustainability 2021, 13(3), 1573; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031573 - 02 Feb 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2526

Abstract

This paper investigates the Inland Container Transportation (ICT) problem with carbon dioxide emissions. The separation mode that the tractor and semi-trailer could be detached and it permits multitasking to reduce fuel and carbon emission costs. A mixed-integer programming model with Full-Empty container integration has been built. An improved ant colony optimization with two-dimensional variable matrix encoding and Infeasible-Arc filtration strategy has been proposed. Numerical experiments with different scales and characteristics are simulated and validated in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. The comparison result indicates the excellent stability for our approach with different task characteristic distribution. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamic Trans-Sino-Europe Transport Networks and Their Impacts on Sustainable Goals (UNSDGs))

► Show Figures

Figure 1

24 pages, 1203 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Allocation and Scheduling of Handling Resources in the Railway Container Terminal Based on Crossing Crane Area

by Gang Ren, Xiaohan Wang, Jiaxin Cai and Shujuan Guo

Sustainability 2021, 13(3), 1190; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031190 - 23 Jan 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1901

Abstract

The integrated allocation and scheduling of handling resources are crucial problems in the railway container terminal (RCT). We investigate the integrated optimization problem for handling resources of the crane area, dual-gantry crane (GC), and internal trucks (ITs). A creative handling scheme is proposed to reduce the long-distance, full-loaded movement of GCs by making use of the advantages of ITs. Based on this scheme, we propose a flexible crossing crane area to balance the workload of dual-GC. Decomposing the integrated problem into four sub-problems, a multi-objective mixed-integer programming model (MIP) is developed. By analyzing the characteristic of the integrated problem, a three-layer hybrid heuristic algorithm (TLHHA) incorporating heuristic rule (HR), elite co-evolution genetic algorithm (ECEGA), greedy rule (GR), and simulated annealing (SA) is designed for solving the problem. Numerical experiments were conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model and algorithm. The results show that the proposed algorithm has excellent searching ability, and the simultaneous optimization scheme could ensure the requirements for efficiency, effectiveness, and energy-saving, as well as the balance rate of dual-GC. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamic Trans-Sino-Europe Transport Networks and Their Impacts on Sustainable Goals (UNSDGs))

► Show Figures

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Dynamic Trans-Sino-Europe Transport Networks and Their Impacts on Sustainable Goals (UNSDGs)

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Keywords

Published Papers (6 papers)

Research

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI