Assessing the economic and environmental impacts of urban food systems for public school canteens: case study of Great Lyon region

Abstract

Purpose: Urban logistics is a subject that interests both city planners and researchers. Although many works are found in non-food distribution, food-based logistics is less studied in an urban context, and sustainability issues of urban food systems remain little analysed, but it is a crucial element for local public authorities. This paper proposes a methodology for assessing scenarios of advanced urban food logistics; more precisely to answer the question of how school canteen distribution scenarios can be assessed in an economic and environmental viewpoint. Methods: To deal with those issues, the paper proposes to develop a scenario assessment framework combining a demand estimation model, a transport supply estimation method and a set of evaluation indicators (for both economic and environmental impacts). The demand estimation model generates first a number of meals per canteen then transforms it into a food quantity, based on carrier's information and other practice's feedbacks; the transport estimation is made with a combination of route construction algorithms that reproduce the logic of current Transportation Management System (TMS). The economic evaluation is made via direct operational costs estimation (both fixed and variable) and the environmental evaluation using COPERT V for direct emission's assessment. Results: Three scenarios are assessed: the current situation with the operational warehouse, the use of an alternative platform in another location and the combination of both. To address the application issues, the proposed framework is compared to the use of disconnected commercial tools on the three scenarios. We observe that the first two scenarios are close in terms of travelled distances, times and costs. The third scenario, which involves two platforms, results on higher distances and times, and consequently on higher costs and higher for some of the environmental emissions. That scenario does not allow, with the considered demand, economies of scale (i.e. using less vehicles or in a more consolidated way). When comparing the two assessment methods, the proposed framework results on slightly higher travelled distances and times, but the same number of vehicles. However, results can be considered equivalent since the gap between the two assessment methods is in general around 5% for most indicators.

Smart Urban Planning: Evaluating Urban Logistics Performance of Innovative Solutions and Sustainable Policies in the Venice Lagoon—the Results of a Case Study

“…Along with the results of other studies in various urban contexts [1,2,13,31,41,43,53], our research has demonstrated the benefits-in a quantifiable (and qualitative as well) manner-of a mixed passenger and freight urban system in the Venice Lagoon in terms of increased urban performance and sustainability (optimization of the existing transport capacity). In particular, the case study has focused on peripheral areas (core-periphery connections), where few studies have been conducted so far elsewhere and never so in Venice.…”

“…Following some methodologies proposed in the literature [10,51,53], we develop an original scenario-building approach to assess proposed mixed transport services consisting of:…”

Accommodating urban freight in city planning

“…Palacios-Argüello et al [12] propose a method to assess the economic and environmental performance of food distribution schemes for public school canteens in Lyon, France. The results reveal the importance of planning the logistics distribution system in a way that both reduces the negative impacts of food distribution and is economically feasible.…”

“…This Topical Collection (TC) seeks to provide a better scientific foundation for the integration of freight into city planning. [7], Campbell et al [5], Pitera et al [13] and Aditjandra and Zunder [1] focus on planning related to local freight needs; Palacios-Argüello et al [12], Gonzalez-Calderon et al [10] and Fossheim and Andersen [9] study the characteristics and requirements of planning for freight in metropolitan areas; Buldeo Rai et al [4] and Arnold et al [3] focus on innovations related to urban freight, while Le Pira et al [11] study the interaction between freight stakeholders when finding a policy package in common agreement.…”

Assessing the impact of parameters for the last mile logistics system on creation of the added value of goods

“…To this end, it is necessary to explore the influence of parameters of the last mile routing system on the character of forming the added value of goods as a result of transportation. In this case, it is advisable to apply a value assessment of consequences of the implementation of transportation process within the framework of the last mile by analogy to studies [27,28].…”