https://www.sciencedirect.com/special-issue/325067/innovative-transport-systems-and-their-environmental-impact
Guest editors:
Prof. Alessandro Farina
University of Pisa, Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Largo Lucio Lazzarino 1, 56126 Pisa, Italy
e-mail: alessandro.farina@unipi.it
Prof. Yueyue Fan
University of California, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2001 Ghausi Hall, Davis, CA 95616, USA
e-mail: yyfan@ucdavis.edu
Prof. Kareem Tonbol
Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport,Abukir Campus,9 Abu Qir Al Gharbeyah, Montaza 2, Alexandria Governorate 5528341, Egypt
e-mail: ktonbol@aast.edu
AIMS AND SCOPE
This special issue calls for papers exploring topics related to the environmental impact of transport systems and innovation in transport systems for urban areas. The call is associated with the conferences TransClim 2025 (Transport Systems and Climate Change 2025) and InnovaLex 2025 (Innovative transport systems from engineering and Law perspectives 2025), but all relevant works are welcome.
Transport systems show a relevant environmental footprint, and are a remarkable cause of climate change, especially due to CO2 emissions. Nevertheless transport systems record also an acoustic impact. The environmental footprint of transport systems is particularly high in urban areas, while it is especially due to road transport of freight and passengers. City logistics in particular need to be optimized, as the distribution of goods in urban areas is currently carried out by private companies by means of vehicles (vans and trucks) very often powered by petroleum-derived fuels. This situation is worsened by high urbanization rates: in 2021, 57% of the global population lived in urban areas, and it is expected to reach 66% in 2050 and 85% in 2100. In 150 years, the urban population will grow from less than 1 billion in 1950 to 9 billion by 2100.Another important source of carbon emissions is due to extraurban freight transport by trucks. Simultaneously, innovative transport systems have been studied, for passenger and freight especially in urban areas. In the field of freight transport, new last mile freight delivery systems have been studied, e.g., those based on Urban Distribution Centres (UDCs). Possible research topics might concern employing automated vehicles for freight and passenger transport; however, fully driverless vehicles could travel on public roads only after legal and ethical issues have been resolved. The former might deal with liability and the latter with choices in emergency situations, e.g., the case of the trolley dilemma. In peri-urban and extraurban public passenger transport, some important topics concern bus services in low demand areas, while the development of combined transport tries to address the environmental impact of freight transport.
This special issue brings together articles on innovative transport systems for freight and passengers, intermodal and combined transport, new solutions and schemes for city logistics, urban and periurban passenger transport, environmental impact, climate change, effects of extreme weather events on the population and on transport systems. The l issue welcomes also research on design methodologies of transport systems, simulation and optimization algorithms, transport demand forecasting models, and modal split assessment models, among other topics.
TOPICS COVERED
Topics that are of interest for this special issue include, but are not limited to:
Manuscript submission information:
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
The APC (Article Publishing Charge) will be covered by IFORS for all papers submitted by 1st April 2026. Submitted papers should be original works and should not have been previously published or currently considered for publication elsewhere. The manuscripts should be prepared according to the Guide for Authors available at:
https://www.elsevier.com/journals/sustainability-analytics-and-modeling/2667-2596/guide-for-authors.
All manuscripts should be submitted electronically using the journal's online manuscript submission system at: https://www.editorialmanager.com/samod/default.aspx when prompted for the article type, please select, "VSI: Innovative transport systems".
On the Attach Files screen, please submit the Manuscript, Highlights, Cover Letter summarizing the contributions of the paper, and Conflict of Interest Declaration (template available at https://service.elsevier.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/286/supporthub/publishing).
At the Review Preferences screen, you may suggest potential reviewers for this submission and provide specific reasons for your suggestion in the comments box for each person.
Manuscripts submitted after the deadline may not be considered for the special issue and may be transferred, if accepted, to a regular issue.
IMPORTANT DATES
Eligible submissions will be quickly submitted to the peer review process by the guest editors. The guest editors will work to ensure a maximum time of three months for the initial peer review process. Papers that need moderate revisions will be maintained for consideration for the special issue. Papers that need major revision will be transferred to a regular issue.
Deadline for submissions: March 31, 2026