Streams project

Project Summary

STREAMS
Strategic Transport Research for European Member States

Client Commission of the European Communities, Directorate General for Transport

Duration 6/1996-6/1998

OBJECTIVE:
The objective of STREAMS project is to develop a methodology to analyse how external factors influence levels of mobility in Europe, and how the European transport networks can cope with the resulting transport needs. The methodology will be implemented and tested in an operational model to present base scenarios on European transport developments.

DESCRIPTION:
As this research is to be included in a common concerted action, there is a special requirement to bring state-of-the-art research and technology into practical use so that a reliable method to support European policy decisions can be created. A model base on this methodology is then calibrated and used at the European level to provide forecasts of the patterns of mobility and of freight and passenger flows that arise from the scenarios it takes as inputs.

The emphasis in the project is to provide insights and solutions to the issues that need to be resolved in order to apply strategic transport modelling successfully at the European level. The consortium will liaise closely with the parallel SCENARIOS consortium whose responsibility it is to specify the future evolution of external factors, the methodology for a more detailed model to be developed in a later project, phase B.

The specific objectives are as follows:

1. Define all of the important issues for strategic transport modelling

2. Define European wide data to be used in modelling

3. Specify methodology for studying the issues stated in objective 1

4. Collect data for modelling

5. Calibrate an operational model (pass I) for research with possibly incomplete data

6. Gain sufficient understanding of the key problem areas in strategic modelling to inform the specification of the Phase B modelling methodology

7. Enhance the model structure (pass II) based on the insights gained from research

8. Create and use a scenario management system to process many external/policy scenarios and their combinations

9. Test the pass II model and use it to forecast the outcomes of future scenarios

10. Develop and use representation techniques to aid in understanding patterns of mobility in Europe.