Rapid technological developments in autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV or drones) and an evolving legislation may soon open the way for their large-scale implementation in the last mile delivery of products. The use of drones could drastically decrease labour costs and has been hyped as a potential disruptor to the parcel delivery industry. Online retailers and delivery companies such as Amazon, are already filing up patents for the development of multi-level fulfilment centres for unmanned aerial vehicles or “drone-beehives” that would allow the deployment of this technology within built environment. A substantial amount of research has been carried out in the last years on the potential use of drones for parcel delivery, principally in the area of logistic optimisation. However, little is known about the potential market and economic viability of such services in Europe. This paper presents a modelling framework using EU-wide high-resolution population and land-use data to estimate the potential optimal location of drone-beehives based on economic viability criterion. It estimates the potential number of EU28 citizens that could potentially benefit from last mile-drone delivery services under four scenarios. The performed analyses indicates that under the scenario considered as the most technologically realistic, up to 7% of EU citizens could get access to such services. When considering technological improvements scenarios, the share reaches 30%. Furthermore, results suggest that due to the differences in population and land-use patterns in the different Member States, the potential drone coverage across Europe could be very heterogeneous, with the UK, Germany, Italy and France appearing as the most likely countries where drone-beehives may have the most efficient development.

A long-span suspension bridge is a complex structural system that interacts with the surrounding environment and the users. The environmental actions and the corresponding loads (wind, temperature, rain, earthquake, etc.) together with the live loads (railway traffic, highway traffic), have a strong influence on the dynamic response of the bridge, and can significantly influence the structural behavior and alter its geometry, thus limiting the serviceability performance even up to a partial closure. This article will present some general considerations and operative aspects of the activities related to the analysis and design of such a complex structural system. Specific reference is made to the dependability assessment and the performance requirements of the whole system, while focus is given on methods for handling the completeness and the uncertainty in the assessment of the load scenarios. Aiming at the serviceability assessment, a method based on the combined application of genetic algorithms and a finite element method (FEM) investigation is proposed and applied

The European Commission’s Communication on a European Green Deal sets out the objective of achieving climate neutrality by 2050, which will require a reduction in transport emissions. To this aim, digital technologies, together with connectivity and automation, are transforming traditional concepts of mobility, with a potential impact towards transport decarbonisation. New business models are emerging and giving rise to innovative mobility services including new online platforms for car-pooling, car or bicycle sharing services, freight operations, or smartphone applications offering real-time travel information and other analytics. This study provides an overview of the European Union (EU) funded research and innovation (R&I) and related technologies that are influencing the uptake of digital transformation in transport and identifies issues and challenges from a European perspective. To that end, it follows a two-tier approach that examines policy and legislative initiatives from the European Commission, highlighting possible challenges and enablers. Moreover, it analyses transport technology developments in Europe, focusing on the technology maturity from EU R&I framework programmes, using the European Commission’s Transport Research and Innovation Monitoring and Information System (TRIMIS). The technology analysis provides insights that aid policy decisions related to funding allocation in future R&I framework programmes.