Santiago Mancebo Quintana

Assessment of Cross-Border Spillover Effects of National Transport Infrastructure Plans: An Accessibility Approach

Abstract Traditional transport infrastructure assessment methodologies rarely include the full range of strategic benefits for the transportation system. One of these benefits is the contribution to cross‐border integration, critical for the European integration process. However, this is a key issue in strategic planning and decision‐making processes, as its inclusion may increase the probability of large‐scale transport infrastructure projects being funded. This paper presents a methodology for the measurement of the contribution of transport infrastructure plans to European integration. The methodology is based on the measurement of the improvement in network efficiency in cross‐border regions of neighbouring countries, via accessibility calculations in a Geographical Information System support. The methodology was tested by applying it to the ambitious road and rail network extensions included in the Spanish Strategic Transport and Infrastructure Plan (PEIT) 2005–2020. The results show significant and important network efficiency improvements of the PEIT outside the Spanish border. For the road mode, while the Spanish average accessibility improvement accounts for 2.6%, average improvements in cross‐border regions of France and Portugal are of 1.8%. And for the rail mode, the corresponding Spanish value is 34.5%, whereas in neighbouring regions it accounts for 20.2%. These results stress the significant importance of this strategic benefit and the consequent need for its inclusion in strategic planning processes. Finally, the paper identifies the potential of the methodology when applied at different administrative levels, such as the local or state levels.

Road and railway accessibility atlas of Spain

Abstract Please click here to download the map associated with this article. This article presents accessibility maps for road and railway on the Spanish peninsular for 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2007. Accessibility is defined as the ability of reaching a particular destination using the transport network. To calculate accessibility, a network efficiency indicator was used to measure the speed with which the distance between the starting point and the destination is actually covered. The process consisted of first configuring the Spanish road and railway networks by establishing their connectivity and identifying their typology, with a precision of 500 metres, for each of the years studied. The current road networks and the various railway networks (high speed, conventional…) were considered separately. Another process involved creating a map showing all the municipal districts in the Spanish part of the Iberian Peninsula (8,176), and then assigning to each one an economic variable to calculate its accessibility. The indicators were calculated by computing the minimum paths, where the cost is the travel time determined according to the type of section of the route. An accessibility value was obtained for each node (urban agglomeration) and was then interpolated in order to provide a graphic representation of the results.

A GIS Raster Model for Assessing the Environmental Quality of Spain Focused on SEA and Infrastructure Planning Procedures (LATINO Model)

The preservation of environmental quality is becoming recognised as a critical factor that should constrain landscape planning. Our objective is to develop an environmental assessment GIS raster tool (LATINO) for evaluating large territories, focused on SEA and screening of infrastructure planning procedures. We use GIS raster models based on logical operations of reclassifying and combining the raster layers, and numerical vector operations based on the vector module. We analyse a country of 506,000 km2, using a total of 102,240 different vectors. We use this model to estimate promptly the overall impact two Spanish infrastructure plans (PIT and PEIT) might have on the biodiversity and environment.