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Purpose This paper addresses the complex problem of multi-stakeholder decisions in urban freight transport policy-making from a public authority perspective, by proposing a procedure based on a modelling approach to support stakeholder involvement in the decisionmaking process. The paper analyses the existing methods that can be used for participatory decision-support, with the intent of contextualizing and introducing the innovative modelling approach. Methods The modelling approach consists of a well-thought integration of discrete choice models (DCM) with agent-based models (ABM) as an effective way to account for stakeholders' opinions in the policy-making process, while mimicking their interaction to find a shared policy package. The integrated modelling approach is able to combine the advantages of the two methods while overcoming their respective weaknesses. Since it is well grounded on sound microeconomic theory, it provides a detailed (static) stakeholders' behavioural knowledge, but it is also capable of reproducing agents' (dynamic) interaction during the decision-making process. The integration allows performing an ex-ante behavioural analysis, with the aim of testing the potential acceptability of the solutions proposed. The methodology is applied in a real case study to prove its feasibility and usefulness for participatory decision-making. Results The integrated modelling approach can be used for participatory decision-support and it can be casted in the overall UFT policy-making process. The results of the behavioural analysis, in terms of ranking of potentially accepted policies, linked with the technical evaluations from transport network modelling tools, provide a sound basis for active participation and deliberation with stakeholders and policy-makers. The aim is to guide an effective participation process aimed at consensus building among stakeholders, by proposing them a subset of policies that, as a result of a preliminary analysis, are likely to be accepted while performing well in terms of technical results. Conclusions This approach, integrating DCM and ABM, represents a promising way to tackle the complexity of multistakeholder involvement in UFT policy-making and to support an efficient and effective decision-making process. It produces an added value for UFT policy-making and it can be framed in the overall context of transport planning. In fact, together with technical and economic analyses, the stakeholder behavioural analysis proposed contributes to the ex-ante policy assessment needed to support decision-makers in taking well-thought decisions.

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In order to analyse the behaviour of pedestrians at the very fine scale, while moving along the streets, in open spaces or inside a building, simulation modelling becomes an essential tool. In these spatial environments, in the presence of unusual demand flows, simulation requires the ability to model the local dynamics of individual decision making and behaviour, which is strongly affected by the geometry, randomness, social preferences, local and collective behaviour of other individuals. The dynamics of people visiting and evacuating a museum offers an excellent case study along this line. In this paper we realize an agent-based simulation of the Castello Ursino museum in Catania (Italy), evaluating its carrying capacity in terms of both satisfaction of the visitors in regime of normal fruition and their safety under alarm conditions. Motivation and OverviewWalking is the most sustainable mode of transport. Survey data from a selection of seven European countries shows that 12-30% of all trips is made by walking (OECD, 1998). In Italy it involves 75% of all trips under a kilometer, as reported by ISFORT (2006), it is the first and last segment of every travel, affects the level of service of important transport infrastructure such as airports and railway stations. At the same time it is also of fundamental importance in fields related to urban planning, emergency, disaster planning. On the other hand, transportation engineering is traditionally focused on motorized travel and therefore there is a general lack of research and methods to model pedestrian behaviour. Existing transport pedestrian models can be roughly separated in analytical models and micro-simulations.The first ones include "before and after" methods and regression analysis models (Older 1968, Pushkarev 1971, analogies with fluids, gas kinetics and other physical flow systems (Helbing 1992, Henderson 1974), entropy maximization (Butler 1978), dynamic network analysis with flow models calibrated on the basis of collected data (Di Gangi 2007), discrete choice models to predict pedestrians' route choice (Antonini 2006, Ignaccolo 2006, stochastic queuing and Markovian models (Mitchell 2001). In all these cases, the authors use mathematical models to calculate average pedestrian flows along a path, but these models are not able to include peculiar aspects of pedestrian (human) behaviour.The second ones simulate the movement of each single pedestrian following a set of predetermined rules of behaviour and are applicable to a greater variety of situations, such as closed spatial environments or unusual demand flows, where local dynamics of individual decision making is strongly affected by geometry, randomness, social preferences, local and collective behaviour of other individuals. Helbing (1995) proposed a simulation approach based on the concept of "social force", that includes a sort of internal motivations of the individuals to perform certain actions (movements) and its influence on people's dynamic variables (velocity, acceleration, distance). M...

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