Track: Logistics

Abstract

The objective of urban logistics can be defined as finding efficient and effective ways to transport goods in urban areas. Although urban logistics is extremely important for a city, as it delivers goods to residents and ensures adequate supplies in stores, it may potentially generate social, environmental, and economic externalities on the urban landscape. Because of these opposing factors, designing and managing an urban logistics system is quite challenging. On top of that, due to the ever-changing technological landscapes, various uncertainties, and driving forces present in the system, its development cannot be projected simply by extrapolating past and current trends. To achieve a sustainable urban logistics future, planners and stakeholders need to develop a well-informed, long-term understanding of urban logistics to address challenges that lie beyond the horizon. In this paper, we introduce our ongoing foresight study and discuss the significance of adopting such tools in planning for the future of urban logistics where a high degree of uncertainty is present in the system.