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The primary objective of SUTRA is to develop a consistent and comprehensive approach and planning methodology for the analysis of urban transportation problems, that helps to design strategies for sustainable cities. This includes an integration of socio-economic, environmental and technological concepts including the development, integration, and demonstration of tools and methodologies to improve forecasting, assessment and policy level decision support.

The primary objective of SUTRA is to develop a consistent and comprehensive approach and planning methodology for the analysis of urban transportation problems, that helps to design strategies for sustainable cities. This includes an integration of socio-economic, environmental and technological concepts including the development, integration, and demonstration of tools and methodologies to improve forecasting, assessment and policy level decision support. Combining an indicator based approach with simulation models and scenario analysis, socio-economic and environmental impact assessment, and a public information component, SUTRA includes awareness building and educational aspects for citizens and stakeholders participating in urban decision making processes.

The project co-ordinator is ESS GbmH-Environmental Software & Services GbmH, Gumpoldskirchen, Austria.

FEEM is the lead partner for the elaboration of scenarios of urban development and for the economic assessment part of the project.

Transportation problems are among the most pressing strategic development problems in many cities. The problems to be solved are the inefficiency of urban transportation systems and underlying land use patterns, which negatively affect quality of life, economic efficiency, and the environment; the high costs of urban transportation in both socio-economic and environmental terms; and the environmental consequences both in terms of physical aspects that include land and resource use, ecological aspects, and human health problems.

From a technical perspective, SUTRA has the following objectives:

  • to develop and apply a set of indicators for sustainable urban development;
  • to evaluate the status quo of the participating cities as a baseline-scenario in terms of these indicators;
  • analyse these scenarios using a set of different models and assessment tools, evaluate in terms of the indicators defined;
  • use a discrete multi-criteria optimisation approach to compare and evaluate the alternatives, identify preferable strategies, benchmark and compare cities to find generally applicable strategies;
  • to communicate these strategies and underlying information to policy makers, major actors and the general public.