Massimiliano Petri

Intelligent Gis and Retail Location Dynamics: A Multi Agent System Integrated with ArcGis

The main step towards building “intelligent” Gis is to connect them with spatial simulation models. Multi Agent Systems (Mas) allow to represent, through a computer code, the behaviour of entities operating in a given environment and the system dynamics that derive from the interactions of such agents. We integrated (through the VBA programming language) a Mas into a Gis, where, through a friendly interface, it is possible, during the simulation, to modify the model by adding individual behavioural rules and/or new typologies of agents. In our urban Mas, two typologies of agents are defined: retail users and retail entrepreneurs, interacting according to a spatial demand-supply matching mechanism. We describe a prototypal application of a model whose aim is simulating, in an urban system, the dynamics of retailing location.

From Axial Maps to Mark Point Parameter Analysis (Ma.P.P.A.) – A GIS Implemented Method to Automate Configurational Analysis

Methods based on configurational theory were proved to be highly effective in urban space analysis, in order to highlight the distribution of the levels of attractiveness towards activities. Nevertheless, both Axial Analysis and Visibility Graph Analysis (the most prominent analytic techniques) appear affected by some evident faults, that somehow do limit their actual use: in particular, those faults affect the definition of the axial system, due to the arbitrariness in drawing the lines that cover the urban grid and the lacking of correspondence between them and the streets of the settlement. In VGA, that studies the configurational features of the internal points of the grid, the problem concerns the heaviness of the data (thousands of numerical values) and the difficulty in referring them to a single urban space (either a street or a square).

A New Data-Driven Approach to Forecast Freight Transport Demand

Transport modeling, in general, and freight transport modeling, in particular, are becoming important tools for investigating the effects of investments and policies. Freight demand forecasting models are still in an experimentation and evolution stage. Nevertheless, some recent European projects, like Transtools or ETIS/ETIS Plus, have developed a unique modeling and data framework for freight forecast at large scale so to avoid data availability and modeling problems.

Renewable Energy Sources: The Case of Wind Farms Analysis

The state of art about the assessment of renewable energy sources productivity and sustainable use shows the lack of robust methods and techniques and the inadequacy of applied instruments. The present research implements a methodology that allows to evaluate both the opportunity to use wind energy and, in the affirmative, the producibility and location of a wind farm, introducing elements and quantitative techniques for a correct support decision aiding. An evaluation framework is developed, usable not only for wind but also for other renewable energy sources.

The Simulation of Spatial Change: What Relation Between Knowledge and Modeling? A Proposal and Its Application

The aim of the research is to investigate land use transformations in a territorial area of Albania, analyzing the connections existing between the deep political and socio-economical changes. The tools we adopted, from the field of the KDS, is able to produce IF/THEN type rules, in which the “IF” part describes the observed state, and the “THEN” part identifies the transition to another state. The application included different phases: a) construction of maps referred to different time slices; b) construction of automated procedures within G.I.S. in order to perform various kinds of cartographic analysis such as map overlays, neighbouring analysis, etc; c) construction of automated report tables referred to cartographic analysis, containing all the attributes necessary to describe the territorial structure; d) implementation of an algorithm able to extract land transformation rules; e) analysis of the obtained rules in order to find significant relations between socio-economical and spatial evolution.

A Participative Multi Agent System for Urban Sustainable Mobility

The current research deals with the development of a Multi Agent System able to analyse and simulate the dynamics of urban system sustainable mobility as derived from millions of choices performed by the individuals belonging to the system itself. In this research an Activity Based Model is devised in order to reconstruct urban mobility. With the objective to perform a dynamic decision support system for the comprehension of phenomena influencing mobility at urban scale, this research tries to gather in the model both the territorial features, by the construction of a detailed spatial database able to contain all the services the city offers, and the direct extraction of citizens behavioural rules from survey data by Artificial Intelligence tools. To this end the population sample questionnaire structuring, the “temporal” geodatabase construction and the agents behavioural rules extraction, via two different Data Mining techniques, represent the most relevant innovations experimented till now.

Land-Use Change at Cadastral Parcel Level in Albania

A case study in Albania is presented based on the EU Phare Land Use Policy II project results where GIS-oriented instruments and innovative methodologies were implemented to support decision making for land-use policy and planning. The developed Land-Use Information System for Albania allows the logical and functional hierarchical arrangement of land uses and data harmonisation with other land-use description systems. It is linked to the object-oriented Land-Use Change Analyses methodology that groups changes into conversions and modifications. The preferred change patterns indicate that land users take rational decisions when changing land use, even in the absence of any regulating plan, as is the case in post-communist Albania.

A Feasibility Study for New Transport Connections between Italy and Algeria

The present study is part of the Executive Scientific Project 2 in the ItalMed Project which aims to elaborate a feasibility study for new transport connections between Italy and Algeria. The main objectives of the study are to increase the degree of economic integration between the two countries and improve commercial exchanges and direct investments in Algeria by Italian private companies. Moreover, the study tries to promote Italy’s role as logistic platform for Mediterranean Countries along the east-west and north-south corridors and to improve the capacity of Italian regions to manage international cooperation programs on transport and logistics, finally, to support regional entrepreneurship in the foreign services sector.

Improving Bicycle Mobility in Urban Areas Through ITS Technologies: The SaveMyBike Project

This paper describes some ITS solutions and rewarding policies to increase the use of sustainable transport means in urban areas. Firstly, existing policies are described, and the advantages of rewarding systems are presented. Afterwards, the ITS technologies application to monitor mobility modes is described. In this context, the paper presents the SaveMyBike prototypical project and its solutions. SaveMyBike is an anti-theft monitoring system, based on RFID technologies and made of three modules. The first module creates secure urban areas through installed alarms where owners can leave their bike safely. The second module uses fixed RFID gates to monitor journeys and detect stolen bikes. The third module uses portable RFID readers that, during the parking and street control, read in-bike tags, detecting: the stolen bikes, and origins/destinations of bicycle trips. The system is based on rewarding policies, to incentivize people to use their private bikes and public transport modes.

ITS to change behaviour: A focus about bike mobility monitoring and incentive — The SaveMyBike system

The general objective of the research is to increase the use of sustainable means of transport in urban areas, to improve air quality through good mobility practice rewarding or of mobility demand management systems (credit market mobility-tradable mobility credit) made by monitoring individual trips. After a first analysis of the existing mobility demand management systems, it is described the use of rewards/incentive as one of the possible solutions. The use of ITS to monitor all available mobility modes is analyzed and the lack of ITS to monitor daily bicycle mobility is underlined. Behind this problem, the paper presents the SaveMyBike project and its solutions.