European Transport / Trasporti Europei (1996) 03

This paper does not aim to simply highlight the need of elaborating a broader concept of the transport investment evaluation techniques. The objectives are the following: • a critical definition of the port function; • said that, an analysis about the way of evaluating port activities over time. The original aspects which are considered are concerned with the definition of the purposes for which a port is built and that must be pursued over time. The need to implement an economic process of analysis of the port activities stems from this in such a way to put principles and techniques of the welfare economics in a dynamic contest

Of the various environmental impact components of a port infrastructure, the amount of space allotted to a facility is particularly significant. This is so because space is the one natural resource that determines the way in which all the others are used. On the other hand, in making investment decisions, it is crucial to define the efficiency of the way a given facility makes use of the ground it occupies, rather than focus on absolute space consumption levels. The present article expounds the methodological contents and presents a first summary of the results stemmig from a comparative analysis of ground productivity by the three transport systems competing for passenger traffic on a distance range of 400 to 900 KM (air, road and railway transport). Productivity indicators (expressed in terms of the potential mobility compared to the surface covered) are applied to each of the three mobility systems, threby providing food for thought on the specific conditions which determine the convenience of each system compared to the others. Lastly, some methodological observations concerning the development limitations and potential of the analysis model are also included.

In literature and practice, a number of methods are used for determining the limits of port gravitational areas: the geographical and geometrical method, the mainland-tariff method, the actual mainland transport cost method, and the total transport cost method. The basic drawback of these methods is that in determining the port gravitational areas, only the geographical distance of the port from the mainland industrial centers, or the transportation costs, are taken into account, whereas all other logistical elements which could be crucial under prevailing transport conditions for the choice of the direction of transport are neglected. This paper proposes a new method for determining the limits of port gravitational areas in such a way as to take into account all logistical elements which are of consequence for determining the gravitational area of a port.

The subject of this study is the formulation of a multivariable econometric model for making plausible development hypotheses on the demand for air transport with respect to a number of socio-economic variables. The influence of these variables has been checked on the basis of the data for previous years. The regression curve of the model has been chosen among several alternative hypotheses, as a function of the value of certain indicators. Having specified the confidence intervals and the variance of forecast errors, one can obtain the value of the future demand as a function of the foreseeable socio-economic scenario. By adopting the same criteria one can try to assess the foreseeable evolution of the three components of total passenger traffic (national, international, and intercontinental), and thereby formulate some hypotheses on future distribution trends.

Efficient planning, control and management of urban and metropolitan traffic have for long been judged as key issues that civil servants and experts must address in order to make, or at least keep, our cities liveable. A subject of such economic and social relevance for the country would deserve a much more well-structured methodological approach than is currently the case, for it entails multidisciplinary instruments and knowledge. This approach can now be considerably improved by introducing into the transport sector the new technologies achieved by the advances in information science and electronics over the past few years. These new technologies will be analysed in this work both with reference to transport infrastructures and to system management.

The paper deals with the possibilities of establishing the Adriatic Sea a particularly sensitive area according to MARPOL 73/78 Convention. In order to enhance the level of safety of navigation and protection of the Adriatic from large-scale pollution, plans for introduction of various measures, such as a routing system and a vessel traffic surveillance are discussed. The basic characteristics of both systems are presented as well as the need for close cooperation between the neighboring coastal states, i.e. the Republic of Italy, the Republic of Slovenia and the Republic of Croatia.