Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This thesis researched, in a watershed typically rural, ways to prevent the lack of mobility of the population, during and after flood events. Studies have also demonstrated the feasibility of developing a system to support civil defense, able to indicate safe areas from flooding scenarios, based on past occurrences. Floods happen when rainfall is extreme and triggers severe socioeconomic and environmental impacts, exacerbated by the lack of territorial planning-level watershed. The floods develop rapidly in space, especially in watersheds with headwaters in mountainous and downstream in floodplains. In such conditions, the rural population needs to be prepared as early as possible because the damage is aggravated by flooding or disruption on roads galleries and bridges. The method considered the stretches of roads that have been submerged, bridges, culverts, slabs, pencil bridges as well as those sites near the streams that were disrupted or blocked by the force of the current floods in the past. In these places the water left marks that were georeferenced and topographically leveled. This allowed delineate areas of flooding and correlate them to their cause rains recorded during the last fifty years. This approach allowed spatially simulate the effects of extreme rainfall, with intensities similar to those that have caused damage on the rural road network and thereby spatialize locations and sections of roads that can be submerged. Also identified strategic locations to monitor the level of water courses - the bridges. These locations were obtained odds of flooding that occurred in the last decade that have been applied in the adjustment of simulated inundation areas. The system has integrated the physical data of the basin, the delineation of wetlands and time series of precipitation and produced strategic information in situations of floods and flooding in a pilot basin in the Central Region of Rio Grande do Sul, confirming that its methodology fits the reality of rural watersheds. / Esta tese pesquisou, em uma bacia hidrográfica tipicamente rural, meios de prevenir a falta de mobilidade da população, durante e após ocorrências de enchentes. Os estudos realizados também demonstraram a viabilidade de desenvolver um sistema de apoio à defesa civil, capaz de indicar áreas de segurança a partir de cenários de enchentes, baseados em ocorrências do passado. As enchentes acontecem quando a pluviosidade é extrema e desencadeia graves impactos socioeconômicos e ambientais, potencializados pela falta de planejamento territorial em nível de bacia hidrográfica. As enchentes desenvolvem-se rapidamente no espaço, principalmente em microbacias com nascentes em relevo montanhoso e jusantes em planícies aluviais. Em tais condições, a população rural necessita estar preparada com a maior antecedência possível, pois os danos são agravados por alagamentos nas estradas ou por rompimento de pontes e galerias. O método considerou os trechos de estradas que ficaram submersos, as pontes, os bueiros, as lajes, as pinguelas, bem como aqueles trechos próximos dos arroios, que foram rompidos ou obstruídos pela força da correnteza nas enchentes do passado. Nesses locais a água deixou marcas que foram georreferenciadas e niveladas topograficamente. Isso possibilitou delimitar as áreas de alagamento e correlacioná-las às suas chuvas causadoras, registradas durante os últimos cinquenta anos. Essa aproximação permitiu simular espacialmente os efeitos das chuvas extremas, com intensidades semelhantes àquelas que já causaram prejuízos sobre a rede viária rural e, com isso, espacializar os locais e trechos de estradas que podem ficar submersos. Permitiu também identificar locais estratégicos para monitorar o nível dos cursos de água as pontes. Nesses locais obtiveram-se as cotas de enchentes, ocorridas na última década, que foram aplicadas no ajuste de áreas de inundação simuladas. O sistema integrou aos dados físicos da bacia, a delimitação das áreas alagadas e a série histórica de precipitação e produziu informações estratégicas nas situações de enchentes e inundações em uma bacia piloto, na Região Central do Rio Grande do Sul, confirmando que sua metodologia adequa-se à realidade de bacias rurais.

Providing a nation’s citizens with timely and effective police services is a complex task, particularly in rural areas where limited resources must be allocated across vast, sparsely populated areas—to date, little research has sought to understand this process. The aim of this thesis is to assess the accessibility of police services in Sweden. Central place theory (CPT) serves as a theoretical framework for understanding how police services are spatially arranged. Differences in accessibility are evaluated with respect to two low-mobility groups—older adults, and women. This thesis employs open data provided by the Swedish police, Statistics Sweden (SCB), and Eurostat. Geographic information systems (GIS) are used to perform network analyses by which drive-times to police stations are calculated. Group differences in accessibility are examined by comparing average drive-times between areas where standardized population ratios (SPR) reveal differences in group representation. Results show that the spatial structure of police services resembles CPT’s prediction in that important services are widely distributed, whereas specialized services are found in more central cities. However, the observations do not perfectly adhere to the theoretical structure, implying that factors exogenous to CPT have some role in determining service point locations. Regarding accessibility, older adults tend to be overrepresented in areas far from police stations, suggesting lower levels of access to the services they offer. Sex was not found to be a significant factor influencing access, except in that men tend to be overrepresented in remote parts of northern Sweden. / Att tillhandahålla effektiva och lägliga polistjänster är en komplex uppgift för ett lands medborgare, särskilt på landsbygden där begränsade resurser måste tilldelas över omfattande och glesbefolkade områden— hittills har lite forskning eftersträvat att förstå denna process. Målet av denna avhandling är att bedöma den rumsliga strukturen och tillgängligheten av polistjänster i Sverige. Teorin känd som "Central place theory (CPT)" fungerar som en teoretisk ram för att förstå hur polistjänster är rumsligt anordnade. Skillnader i tillgänglighet bedöms med avseende på två grupper med låg rörlighet- äldre vuxna och kvinnor. Denna avhandling använder öppna data tillhandahållna av svensk polis, Statistiska Centralbyrån (SCB), och Eurostat. Geografiska informationssystem (GIS) används för att utföra nätverksanalyser genom vilka körtider till polisstationer beräknas. Gruppskillnader i tillgänglighet utvärderas genom att jämföra genomsnittliga körtider mellan områden där standardiserade befolkningsförhållanden, eller "standardized population ratios", (SPR), avslöjar skillnader i grupprepresentation. Resultat visar att den rumsliga strukturen av polistjänster liknar CPTs förutsägelse att viktiga tjänster är allmänt fördelade, medan specialiserade tjänster kan hittas i mer centrala städer. Däremot håller inte observationerna helt fast vid den teoretiska strukturen, vilket innebär att faktorer som är exogena till CPT har en viss roll i att bestämma tjänstlägen. När det gäller tillgänglighet, brukar äldre vuxna vara överrepresenterade i områden långt från polisstationer, vilket tyder på lägre nivåer av tillgänglighet till tjänsterna de erbjuder. Kön befanns inte vara en betydande faktor som påverkar tillgänglighet, förutom att män tenderar att vara överrepresenterade i avlägsna norra områden.

To mitigate climate change, greenhouse gas emissions from mobility systems must be reduced. Measures toreduce greenhouse gas emissions from mobility systems tend to suggest implementations of mobility solutionsthat are optimally adapted to urban areas where demand is high. In rural areas, mobility options outside of theprivate car are scarce. This has led to a disproportionate relation between rural and urban opportunities fortransitioning to a sustainable mobility system. An additional problem is the v ery abstract conceptualization ofsustainable mobility—which can lead to misaligned climate policies and ambitions. Through a literature reviewand semi-structured interviews, this qualitative study examined how nine Swedish mid -sized municipalities’staff defined sustainable mobility for rural residents by having them describe problems related to sustainablemobility in their area, and measures to counter said problems. In doing so, they indirectly suggest what theyconsider a sustainable mobility system to be. The literature was primarily concerned with mobility solutions,rather than problems. The empirical results demonstrated that the problems described by the respondents werecaused by car dependence, feelings and ideas of injustice and unfairness, as well as authoritative and managerialcomplexities from the municipal side. Suggested and implemented measures to promote sustainable ruralmobility were often suited to densely populated areas, but the broader ambitions revealed that the investigatedmunicipalities aim to create behavior change in mobility patterns regarding shorter journeys (< 5 km) in urbanareas, and allowing car use in rural areas where options are few.

Tesis por compendio / [ES] El transporte de personas y bienes supone un problema complejo a la vez que un servicio esencial en la sociedad moderna. Entre los distintos modos de transporte, el transporte rodado supone ventajas y retos únicos, gracias a su flexibilidad y operación tanto urbana como interurbana. La creciente preocupación social respecto al medio ambiente afecta también al transporte rodado, pues los vehículos a motor son una gran fuente de emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero. Sin embargo, la digitalización de la sociedad y la aparición de nuevos modelos de transporte indican el potencial de mejora del transporte rodado, que podría adaptarse mejor a sus usuarios a la vez que operar de forma más sostenible. En esta tesis afrontamos la mejora del transporte rodado mediante técnicas de computación e inteligencia artificial. Esto incluye el modelado de sistemas de transporte mediante sistemas multiagente y su posterior simulación virtual. La operación de las flotas de transporte está determinada por la distribución de tareas, la planificación de las acciones de cada vehículo y su posterior coordinación. Exploramos distintas técnicas y desarrollamos propuestas que mejoran la operación de distintos sistemas de transporte rodado considerando tres puntos de vista: el del operador, el del usuario y, finalmente, el de la sostenibilidad. En otras palabras, apuntamos a obtener sistemas con mayor rendimiento económico y calidad de servicio a la par que un reducido impacto medioambiental. El objetivo de la mejora del transporte rodado se lleva a cabo desde tres frentes. Primero, se propone un marco de trabajo para el modelado efectivo y la simulación de sistemas de transporte. Esta aportación nos sirve como herramienta para la experimentación del resto de la investigación. Después, la investigación se centra en el transporte urbano, caso de uso para el que modelamos la ciudad como un escenario con recursos compartidos. Proponemos el uso de flotas de vehículos descentralizados para una mayor reactividad del sistema. Mediante un modelado de autointerés, se incentiva a los vehículos a proveer de un mejor servicio a los usuarios a la vez que evitan la congestión de los recursos. Finalmente, con la intención de aportar soluciones innovadoras también a las áreas rurales, se adaptan nuestras propuestas previas para el caso de uso del transporte rural interurbano. En este caso, observamos la necesidad de transporte público flexible y adaptado a los usuarios, con especial importancia en su sostenibilidad económica. Nuestras propuestas de sistema siguen estos principios atendiendo al paradigma del transporte adaptable a la demanda. Los resultados de esta tesis aportan soluciones prácticas para la mejora de distintos sistemas de transporte rodado, contribuyendo a un futuro de movilidad flexible más sostenible y adaptada al usuario. Como aportación en el ámbito de la inteligencia artificial, las técnicas desarrolladas tienen el potencial de ser adaptadas a campos más allá del transporte como soluciones generales para la distribución de tareas y la coordinación de elementos distribuidos. / [CA] El transport de persones i béns suposa un problema complex alhora que un servei essencial en la societat moderna. Entre els diferents modes de transport, el transport rodat suposa avantatges i reptes únics, gràcies a la seua flexibilitat i operació tant urbana com interurbana. La creixent preocupació social respecte al medi ambient afecta també al transport rodat, doncs els vehicles de motor són una gran font d'emissions de gasos d'efecte d'hivernacle. No obstant això, la digitalització de la societat i l'aparició de nous models de transport indiquen el potencial de millora del transport rodat, que podria adaptar-se millor als seus usuaris alhora que operar de forma més sostenible. En esta tesi afrontem la millora del transport rodat mitjançant tècniques de computació i intel·ligència artificial. Això inclou el modelatge de sistemes de transport mitjançant sistemes multiagent i la seua posterior simulació virtual. L'operació de les flotes de transport està determinada per la distribució de tasques, la planificació de les accions de cada vehicle i la seua posterior coordinació. Explorem diferents tècniques i desenvolupem propostes que milloren l'operació de diferents sistemes de transport rodat considerant tres punts de vista: el de l'operador, el de l'usuari i, finalment, el de la sostenibilitat. En altres paraules, apuntem a obtindre sistemes amb major rendiment econòmic i qualitat de servei al mateix temps que un reduït impacte mediambiental. L'objectiu de la millora del transport rodat es duu a terme des de tres fronts. Primer, es proposa un marc de treball per al modelatge efectiu i la simulació de sistemes de transport. Esta aportació ens serveix com a eina per a l'experimentació de la resta de la investigació. Després, la investigació se centra en el transport urbà, cas d'ús per al qual modelem la ciutat com un escenari amb recursos compartits. Proposem l'ús de flotes de vehicles descentralitzats per a una major reactivitat del sistema. Mitjançant un modelatge d'autointerés, s'incentiva als vehicles a proveir d'un millor servei als usuaris alhora que eviten la congestió dels recursos. Finalment, amb la intenció d'aportar solucions innovadores també a les àrees rurals, s'adapten les nostres propostes prèvies per al cas d'ús del transport rural interurbà. En este cas, observem la necessitat de transport públic flexible i adaptat als usuaris, amb especial importància en la seua sostenibilitat econòmica. Les nostres propostes de sistema segueixen estos principis atés el paradigma del transport adaptable a la demanda. Els resultats d'esta tesi aporten solucions pràctiques per a la millora de diferents sistemes de transport rodat, contribuint a un futur de mobilitat flexible més sostenible i adaptada a l'usuari. Com a aportació en l'àmbit de la intel·ligència artificial, les tècniques desenvolupades tenen el potencial de ser adaptades a camps més enllà del transport com a solucions generals per a la distribució de tasques i la coordinació d'elements distribuïts. / [EN] The transportation of people and goods is both a complex problem and an essential service in modern society. Among the various modes of transportation, road transport offers unique advantages and challenges, thanks to its flexibility and operation in both urban and interurban areas. The growing social concern for the environment also affects road transportation, as motor vehicles are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. However, the digitalisation of society and the emergence of new transport models indicate the potential for improvement in transportation, which could be better adapted to its users while operating in a more sustainable way. In this thesis, we address the improvement of road transportation by means of computational techniques and artificial intelligence. This includes the modelling of transportation through multi-agent systems and their subsequent simulation. The operation of transportation fleets is determined by the distribution of tasks, the planning of the actions of each vehicle and their subsequent coordination. We explore different techniques and develop proposals that improve the operation of different transportation systems by considering three points of view: that of the operator, that of the user and, finally, that of sustainability. In other words, we aim to obtain systems with higher economic performance and quality of service while reducing their environmental impact. The objective of improving road transportation is pursued on three fronts. First, a framework for the effective modelling and simulation of transportation systems is proposed. This contribution serves as a tool for the experimentation of the rest of the research. Next, the research focuses on urban transportation, a use case for which we model the city as a shared resource scenario. We propose the use of decentralised vehicle fleets for greater reactivity of the system. Through self-interested modelling, vehicles are incentivised to provide a better service to users while avoiding resource congestion. Finally, with the intention of bringing innovative solutions also to rural areas, our previous proposals are adapted to the use case of rural interurban transportation. In this case, we note the need for flexible and user-friendly public transportation, with special emphasis on its economic sustainability. Our system proposals follow these principles following the demand-responsive transportation paradigm. The results of this thesis provide practical solutions for the enhancement of different road transportation systems, contributing to a future of more sustainable and user-tailored flexible mobility. As a contribution to the field of artificial intelligence the developed techniques have the potential to be adapted to fields beyond transportation, providing general solutions for the task allocation and the coordination of distributed elements. / Martí Gimeno, P. (2024). Towards Sustainable and Efficient Road Transportation: Development of Artificial Intelligence Solutions for Urban and Interurban Mobility [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/203076 / Compendio