Innovative ICT Applications to Increase Social Acceptance of Transport Investments

Abstract

Consideration of the environmental impact of transport investments is typically one of the critical aspects in the preparation phase of decisions, strongly influenced by the degree and quality of public participation. Environmental regulation often uses instruments that favour direct government intervention, while other methods based on agreements has minor attention. An overview of the environmental economics of transaction costs and exploring of the processes leading to agreements will be the basis of our work. Then, we summarise existing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services are already available to understand and address the environmental problems. These services are usually limited to certain functions, however additional ICT solutions would increase the level of cooperation between investors and stakeholders. The aim of this research is to propose an ICT platform for facilitating agreements that improve environmental quality. We present the structure of the ICT platform, its essential features and possible implementations. Our platform may contribute to the preparation phase of several types of projects and provide an innovative tool for optimal level of pollution. Through practical examples the potential applications of the proposed ICT system in transport and urban development schemes will be shown and the estimation of achievable benefits will be given. Keywords: environmental sustainability, social acceptance, information and communication technologies, transaction costs, transport investments.