Decision Support Generation for the Development of Integrated and Sustainable Transport Energy Management Strategies

Many alternative approaches to achieve improvement in transportation system sustainability are continuously being proposed. The sheer number and diversity of suggested approaches available in the literature is overwhelming. Decision makers, consequently, need support in the fair and comprehensive evaluation, comparison, and combination of these proposed initiatives. A methodology for the generation of scientific-based decision support on the development of truly integrated strategies to improve transport sustainability is presented in this paper. The key contribution of the approach produced is that all the underlying complexities in the formulation of such strategies are adequately addressed and incorporated in its design. This is achieved through the development of a customized multi-objective metaheuristic simulation optimization model, called the Transport Energy Management Tool (TEMT). A case study application of the TEMT is used to demonstrate its success and usefulness and serves as a proof of concept for adoption of this approach in sustainable transport management.