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The horizontal alignment of existing highways may be identified by using several terrestrial or aerial geomatics technologies. Such technologies involve different levels of precision and accuracy; hence, different results can be expected. At present, there are no comparisons available between the solutions resulting from the use of different technologies and data sources for the same road alignment.In this investigation, a number of terrestrial mobile mapping techniques and data collection strategies were evaluated. The centerline of a 3.6 km section of a highway was used to estimate radii, centers of curvature and orientation of tangents. Two statistical fitting methods were used to back-calculate these parameters, and the results were then compared with as-built alignment data.Terrestrial images from a mobile mapping vehicle were used to determine the centerline, which was also estimated as the average line of the carriageway and pavement edges, and as the average line of the two driving trajectories. Positions were surveyed using low-cost sensors (an integrated GPS-IMU platform, HD webcam). For comparison purposes, aerial orthophotos and a GNSS (high-cost) receiver were used simultaneously. Although the GPS-IMU data and estimated trajectories provided results comparable to those of the GNSS receiver, the use of georeferenced images proved less accurate. The results and comments in the paper should be of use to survey practitioners when they need to select an acquisition methodology appropriate to the desired level of accuracy and in line with budget constraints.

Curves represent the most interesting element to be analyzed when evaluating the operational and safety effects of road geometrics. Despite the existence of several static and dynamic survey techniques, the correct identification of curves and the interpretation of spatial data from horizontal road alignment surveys still represent a challenge. The paper presents the results of an investigation into the effects of both accuracy and sampling frequency (i.e., the interval between data points) of alignment spatial data on the identification of the radius and center of curvature. In pursuit of this objective, the authors adopted an original approach consisting of the generation of dispersed spatial data points from circular arcs with known characteristics. The Least Squares, Huber and Landau methods were used to back-calculate the radius and the coordinates of the center of curvature, and to assess the effects of accuracy and interval between data points. The results obtained quantified the effects of accuracy, interval between points, radius magnitude, and length of circular arc on the identification of circular arcs. In support of future survey activities, considerations regarding the accuracy of measurements, the sampling frequency, and arc characteristics (i.e., length, radius) are discussed in the paper.

In this paper we provide empirical evidence on the impact of US and UK monetary policy changes on credit supply of banks operating in Italy and France over the period 2000-2015, exploring the existence of an international bank lending channel. Exploiting bank balance sheet heterogeneity, we find that monetary policy tightening abroad leads to a reduction of credit supply at home, in particular for US monetary policy changes. Our results show that USD funding plays an important role in the transmission mechanism, especially for French banks which rely to a larger extent on USD funding. We also show that banks adjust their euro and foreign currency lending differently, thus implying that funding sources in different currencies are not perfect substitutes. This is especially the case when tensions in currency swap markets are high, thus resulting in costly cross-currency funding.

In this paper we provide empirical evidence on the impact of US and UK monetary policy changes on credit supply of banks operating in Italy and France over the period 2000-2015, exploring the existence of an international bank lending channel. Exploiting bank balance sheet heterogeneity, we find that monetary policy tightening abroad leads to a reduction of credit supply at home, in particular for US monetary policy changes. Our results show that USD funding plays an important role in the transmission mechanism, especially for French banks which rely to a larger extent on USD funding. We also show that banks adjust their euro and foreign currency lending differently, thus implying that funding sources in different currencies are not perfect substitutes. This is especially the case when tensions in currency swap markets are high, thus resulting in costly cross-currency funding.

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This paper studies what impact liquidity shocks have on liquid assets and domestic and cross-border lending. In particular, we look for differences across banks depending on their international exposure and we account for the effects of the sovereign debt crisis and the ECB's non-conventional monetary policy measures. Our main findings are that liquid assets are important drivers of lending adjustment to liquidity risk and that this effect is significant for domestic lending but not for foreign lending even considering the characteristics of the destination market. Differences in banks' international exposure play a limited role in the way liquidity shocks are transmitted.