Assembling project

Project Summary

ASSEMBLING
Assembling a European Network of Monitoring Centers for Transport Infrastructures

Client Commission of the European Communities, Directorate General for Transport

Duration 6/1997-6/2000

OBJECTIVE:
The main objective of the ASSEMBLING Project is the establishment of a Pilot Network of Transport Infrastructure Monitoring Centres. Each Monitoring Centre or Observatory will be devoted to survey relevant cases of transport infrastructure decision-making processes and/or impacts.

DESCRIPTION:
It is a fact that the transport sector is becoming much more complex from a planning point of view. Transport actors and information sources tend to be more diversified and heterogeneous and, even in cases where information is available decision-makers face problems to manage and discriminate the information. Transport decisions are involved in an increasingly difficult multiparty negotiation process.

ASSEMBLING proposes a bottom-up alternative way to solve this problem. Harmonization and synergies at European level are assured by taking advantage of new digital information technologies. By adopting a decentralised and bottom-up observatory approach, ASSEMBLING tries to complement global information sources by following a field-oriented approach.

The three basic hypothesis in the research are the following ones:

A bottom-up approach is indispensable to generate updated and concrete transport information, as close as possible to real situations.

Current innovation on digital information technologies largely removes traditional concerns related to standardisation of heterogeneous sources. The use of modern Information and Communication Technologies is essential to overcome compatibility concerns.

There are large number of information collection efforts (for instance ex-ante analysis of infrastructure corridors) which, despite their quality and interest, have no continuity and remain non harmonised.

The Pilot Observatory Network to be created within ASSEMBLING research consist on five Monitoring Centres located as follows: East Mediterranean, Nordic Triangle in Finland, Rhine Gateway, Pyrenees, West Mediterranean. Each Observatory will have a particular technical orientation and will share a common core to facilitate consistency and harmonisation at European level. The network will be open in order to be extended over time.

A Transport Infrastructure Monitoring Centre is considered in ASSEMBLING in its two key components:

An specialised "Information System", requiring specific data collection, management and dissemination strategies.

A "Constituency", in terms of assuring the permanent institutional and legal arrangements needed to give continuity to the monitoring exercise.

LT Consultants Ltd. will be responsiple for the implementation of the observatory for the Nordic Triangle in Finland.