ASSET - Assessing Sensitiveness to Transport
Overview
Background & policy context:
Energy and transport play a key role in people's lives and are decisive factors in economic competitiveness and employment. The promotion of sustainable development including its economic growth dimension and continued freedom of movement has become a central objective of European Union policy.
Reaching this objective requires comprehensive policy measures, voluntary agreements, financial schemes and support to research and development. These are at the heart of the Commission proposals presented in the Green Paper 'Towards a European strategy for the security of energy supply', and in the White Paper 'European transport policy for 2010: time to decide'.
In setting out different options, these policy documents clearly identify the main factors contributing to current unsustainable development patterns. The continuous increase in energy and transport demand and their growing dependence on imported fuels, notably oil, is undermining the sustainable development of the European economy.
Although the concept of sensitive areas has been repeatedly evoked in the context of EU transport policies, there is to date no scientific and no political agreement on a definition, nor is there an agreed approach to address the specific concerns associated to transport related SA (TSA).
The ASSET project addresses Task 6: 'Transport related sensitive areas' of Section 3.2 'The development of tools, indicators and operational parameters for assessing sustainable transport and energy systems performance (economic, environmental and social)' of the SSP (Scientific Support to Policies) 5A call.
Objectives:
The project developed the scientific and methodological capabilities to implement European policies aiming at balancing the environmental protection of Sensitive Areas (SA) with the provision of an efficient transport system. Special emphasis on market based instruments.
Main impact:
- improved policy formulation/implementation (infrastructure charging, sustainable development of TEN-T)
Main outputs:
- common framework of definitions, criteria and valuation parameters for Transport Sensitive Areas (TSA),
- methodology for assessment of sensitiveness in TSA,
- mapping of TSAs across the EU,
- review of policy instruments for the protection of SA, analysis of applicability to different TSA categories, identification of policy packages,
- detailed assessment of proposed methodology and policy instruments for 10 case studies (mountainous, urban/metropolitan, natural/protected, coastal areas), different modes, types of traffic and geographical situations,
- policy guidelines for TSA.
Methodology:
ASSET featured eight Work packages (WP), including WP0 Management and WP7 Dissemination.
WP1 Setting the scene is based on an extensive review of existing references to the TSA concept in legislative acts, policy initiatives, as well as in previous research and studies, across different domains and impact categories (environment, ecosystem, transport performance, land use changes etc.). It will notably provide a preliminary classification of TSAs in relation to their inherent characteristics, and will serve as the common basis for the analyses to be carried out in the following WPs.
WP2 Identification and assessment of sensitiveness analyses the functional chain leading from the transport activity (realisation/extension and use of the transport infrastructure) to the damages and costs, for each sensitive area as classified in WP1. It will then provide a suitable set of indicators addressing the most relevant cost drivers, leading to the proposal for an aggregation and weighting of indicators in order to identify the transport-related sensitiveness of a region.
WP3 Mapping transport and related sensitive areas in the EU deals with the operationalisation of the criteria for transport sensitivity and impacts, notably in relation to data availability required for the mapping of the proposed criteria and indicators. This WP includes a review of the state of the art of available mapping techniques and methods, followed by an implementation at the European level utilising existing maps and statistical data. Areas or regions with specific sensitivity to one or more impacts originating from transportation will thus be identified, highlighting the spatial implication of transport policies related to TSA and the demand for spatially explicit policy instruments.
WP4 Analysing Policy Instruments starts with a review of experiences with policy instruments and foreseeable initiatives in the European Union and its Member States based on stakeholder interviews as well as novel, non-standard instruments for the protection of sensitive areas against transport impacts. Based on this overview, a selection of available instruments will then be analysed in more detail in their applicability to the categories of sensitive areas defined in WP1. This analysis will include instruments aimed at mitigating the impacts of existing as well as planned infrastructure for all transport modes. The final task of this WP is the bundling of policy instruments into adequate policy pack
Share this page