V Symposium

According to the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, externalities induced by current mobility models are enormous: congestion already costs Europe 100 Billion Euros annually, poor air quality leads to 500k premature deaths, and road fatalities – especially in cities – are still far too high. Last year, 185 persons lost their lives because of road crashes only in Catalonia (+10% with respect to previous year).

In this context, managing urban mobility, not only cars but also every other transport mode, is a key issue in denser cities. Innovative ways of transporting passenger and goods, future urban concepts and new business models will deeply affect the way people move and surely have an impact on the car-centered paradigm we are currently living in, hopefully making more room for citizens in eco-friendlier environments.

To optimize these urban mobility systems as well as the way they are managed, data will have a key role in future years since every user will become an incredible source of information. Our Symposium is organized together with the third conference of the CM3 (Computational Models and Methods for Mobility) series of ECCOMAS Thematic Conferences “International workshop on Digital Technologies in Transport”, giving a strong data-oriented component to the event this year.

Finally, since moving people is not enough to make cities more sustainable, harbors logistics and freight transportation will be tackled, giving us a deeper insight into the emerging possibilities of the maritime technologies. Among other issues, harbors will undoubtedly benefit from the deployment of autonomous vehicles to reduce their carbon emissions and move towards a more sustainable society.