Overview
Securing the mobility of people and goods and at the same time preserving a healthy environment and natural resources is one of the main challenges our societies face. The DLR internal project “Transport and the Environment” (VEU) aims to analyze the complete contextual chain from mobility behavior and transport formation through to the environmental and societal effects of traffic and mobility. At the root of the project are empirical studies regarding transport developments of all modes, technological and conceptual progresses, employment effects and the impacts specifically of noise, air pollution and climate gases. The VEU project will use scenario analysis to depict future mobility concepts. The analysis of different development pathways of mobility will be conducted with an integrated chain of models available at the DLR and Helmholtz Institutes.
Major corner stones of the VEU project are:
- The analysis of multi-modal transport development accompanied by the expansion of knowledge on the socio-economic dynamics, trends and technological progress that will drive the mobility of the future.
- The plausible, transparent and reproducible modelling of possible future mobility systems, and the analysis of the effects those systems would have, especially on the environment.
The goal of VEU is to generate new scientific knowledge for an integrated, multi-disciplinary assessment of transport developments. Furthermore, results will support decision makers with drafting and evaluating measures for a more sustainable mobility future.
Project:
The institutionally funded Project “Transport and the Environment” (VEU) is a collaborative effort of ten DLR institutes, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Helmholtz-Centre Geesthacht (HZG). The second four-year phase of the project started on 1 January 2014. The project is being coordinated and managed by the Institute of Transport Research of the DLR. The project furthers the inter and transdisciplinary cooperation of the project partners within the Helmholtz research community. It strengthens the competence of the DLR “Transport” program. However, it also connects to other DLR programs, particularly “Energy” and “Aeronautics”.
The unifying element between the work of the contributing institutions is the development of future mobility system scenarios. The scenarios will describe possible pathways and will allow the assessment of the transport systems and their effects. Existing models at the DLR, the KIT and the HZG will be linked and new elements will be developed. The resulting modelling chain will be able to plot developments of transport systems and evaluate the effects on the environment and society. It will thus be possible to use the models and the knowledge gained from them to assess behavioral shifts, new technologies and specific policy measures.
The comprehensive approach of VEU is unique in the scientific community. The multi-disciplinary research at the DLR institutions together with the cooperation with the Helmholtz Institutions KIT and HZG enables this in-depth comprehensive approach. The VEU project brings together the knowledge necessary to answer questions on mobility and the transport system of the future.