Creating a Regulatory Framework for the ESG-investment in the Multimodal Transportation Development

The work states that the strategic guideline for building an effective competitive national transport system and prosperous using Ukrainian multimodal potential is the formation of a regulatory environment for scaling ESG-investment in the context of transformation to a “climate-neutral” economy. The absence of a unified methodology for (assessment) scoring ESG-direction of business as the basis for decision-making on ESG-investment is established in the world and national practice. For the first time, the author’s model of scoring trends and regularities of business development is proposed in accordance with ESG-principles, in contrast to traditional trend dynamic models, which identifies and iteratively conceptualizes processes by the set of ESG-indicator components determined using the cocoupling-analysis toolkit (tools for assessing the cocoupling-effect). A classification of the cocoupling-effect has been developed and each of its types has been characterized. Possible options for ESG-effectiveness of business are identified, which conditionally correspond to the four zones of the ESG-investment decision-making matrix. A research on the expected cocoupling-effect of ESG-investment in the multimodal transportation development is carried out to validate the feasibility of implementation the author’s scoring model for the ESG-direction of business and obtaining realistic results according to the data of the International Energy Agency and the State Statistics Service of Ukraine. An effective measures arsenal of creating the regulatory framework for ESG-investment in the multimodal transportation development is identified and a Roadmap is proposed for their high-quality implementation, which would ensure positive changes in Ukraine’s position in the world ranking of countries by multimodal potential usage efficiency.

Formation of information support for the development of freight transportation of JSC “Ukrzaliznytsya”

A methodical approach to the formation of indicators of the information base of management decisions on the development of freight JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia”, which consists in calculating the taxonomy of the level of development of freight by substantiating systems and its elements: eighteen static systems, elements of which are six regional railways; seven dynamic systems – regional branches and in general JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia”. A spatial and temporal comparison of the development of freight transportation of selected systems is carried out. The taxonomy index is calculated on the basis of five indicators of freight traffic for the period 2002-2019. The analysis of static systems made it possible to identify the uneven development of freight transportation of regional branches of JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” for the studied 18 years. The temporal comparison of the levels of development of freight traffic by each railway in particular also showed their instability. Fluctuations are observed in the last three years of the study period. In 2018, JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” demonstrated the lowest level of freight transportation development for the entire analyzed year 2002-2019. It was established that both external and internal factors caused the negative impact on rail transportation, in particular: the economic crisis of 2014-2015; military action in eastern Ukraine; ineffective management at different levels of government. The introduction of quarantine measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic caused unprofitable and deteriorating financial and economic performance of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia, and its six regional branches in 2020, in particular, revenues from freight transportation decreased by 10.3% compared to 2019, and net loss amounted to UAH 11.9 billion. Implementing the anti-crisis plan by the management of JSC Ukrzaliznytsia and the improvement of operational work in the freight segment has yielded some positive results. However, for the effective planning and management decisions in the field of freight transportation an important component is the proper formation of an information base. The proposed methodological approach will serve as an effective tool not only in the management of the freight segment of individual regional branches or enterprises in particular, but also the economic development of JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” in general and can be used by other large companies.

Impact of Road Network Topology on Public Transportation Development

Planning of road networks is fundamental for public transportation. The impact of road network density on public transportation has been extensively studied, but few studies in this regard involved evaluation indicators for connectivity and layout of road networks. With 29 cities in China as the study cases, this paper quantifies the layout structure of the road network based on the network’s betweenness centralization and establishes a multivariate linear regression model to perform regression of the logarithm of the frequency of per capita public transportation on betweenness centralization. It is found in the present work that there is a significant correlation between the layout structure of an urban road network and the residents’ utilization degree of public transportation. A greater betweenness centralization of the urban road network, namely a more centralized road network, means a higher frequency of per capita public transportation of urban residents and a higher degree of the residents’ utilization of public transportation. In the development of public transportation, centralized and axial-shaped layout structures of road networks can be promoted to improve the utilization of public transportation.

Public Transportation Development in Surakarta City in Partnership Governance Perspective

Transportation plays an important role in mobility in urban areas. Surakarta City provides Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) transportation system, Batik Solo Trans. This research aims to find out the partnership performed by Surakarta City in public transportation development in partnership governance perspective. Data collection was conducted through interview and documentation. Analysis was conducted using Successful Collaborative Partnership principle from Agarwal, Caiola, and Gibson (2015). The research took place in Surakarta City, particularly in PT. Bengawan Solo Trans, PT. Trans Global Mandiri, Transportation Office, and Technical Executive Unit for Transportation as the organizer of feeder along with Bersama Satu Tujuan Cooperative. The research method used here was qualitative one with descriptive approach. The result of research shows that the principle of Successful Collaborative Partnership is analyzed based on 4 principles: (1) Clear Goals: to improve public service safely, comfortably, and affordably to the public; (2) Clear Roles: Government contributes to formulating policy, funding “buy the service” program, licensing, and providing public transportation infrastructure. The private is the operator responsible fully for public transportation management; (3) Trust: Surakarta City government trusts fully the private to perform cooperation, to provide and to manage Batik Solo Trans and feeder bus service; and (4) Commitment: Government and Private are committed mutually to providing transportation infrastructure, managing, maintaining, and operating public transportation.

Determinants of Intercity Air-Passenger Flows in the “Belt and Road” Region

Air-passenger flow, denoting intercity connections, has been a focal point of studies pertaining to urban networks. While most existing studies include only the geoeconomic characteristics of nodes as explanatory variables, this analysis developed a gravity model by incorporating further factors (e.g., cultural disparity and institutional disparity) that might influence air-passenger flows in the “Belt and Road” region. The primary findings are as follows: (1) The cultural and institutional disparities correlate negatively with the air-passenger flows in this region; (2) air-passenger flows are positively related to border, population and economy size, and economic disparity; (3) flows tend to first increase and then subsequently decrease as geographical distance increases; (4) the impact of the factors on the flows varies by subregion. This study could serve as a reference for those interested in gaining a greater insight into air-passenger flows and could also help improve regional strategies for air-transportation development.

Revealing Characteristics of the Spatial Structure of Megacities at Multiple Scales with Jobs-Housing Big Data: A Case Study of Tianjin, China

Urban spatial structure reflects the organization of urban land use and is closely related to the travel patterns of residents. The characteristics of urban spatial structure include both static and dynamic aspects. The static characteristics of urban spatial structure reflect the morphological features of space, and the dynamic characteristics of urban spatial structure reflect intra-city functional linkages. With the continuous agglomeration of population and industries; megacities have become the core spatial carriers leading China’s social and economic development; and their urban spatial structure has also been reconstructed. However; there is still a certain lack of understanding of the characteristics of the spatial structure of China’s megacities. This study aimed to reveal characteristics of the spatial structure of Chinese megacities at different scales using jobs-housing big data. To achieve this goal, spatial autocorrelation and a geographically weighted regression (GWR) model were applied to reveal static polycentricity, and community detection was used to reveal dynamic commuting communities. The distribution of jobs in urban space and jobs–housing balance levels in commuting communities were further analyzed. Experiments were conducted in Tianjin, China. We found that: (1) the static characteristics of the spatial structure of megacities presented the coexistence of polycentricity and a high degree of dispersion at macro- and meso-scales; (2) the dynamic characteristics of the spatial structure of megacities revealed two types of commuting communities at macro- and meso-scales and most commuting communities had a good jobs-housing balance. These findings can be referenced by urban managers and planners to formulate relevant policies for spatial distribution optimization of urban functions and transportation development at different spatial scales.