The main conceptual background of city logistics can be defined as the urban freight landscape. The multidisciplinary approach covers urban geography, urban economics, urban planning, logistics, and supply chain management, the main domains of city logistics. Jointly they provide a comprehensive overview of the spatial, social, economic, infrastructural, and regulatory context in which city logistics operates.
Editors: Genevieve Giuliano, Laetitia Dablanc, Jean-Paul Rodrigue
Section 1. The urban freight landscape
Lead: Laetitia Dablanc
The contemporary city is a complex infrastructural, economic, mobility, and social construct. How freight transportation is linked to the role cities play in the regional and global economy. The urban planning process and the main discrepancies between conventional urban planning (including urban design and architecture) and freight distribution.
- 1.1 – What is City Logistics?
- 1.2 – The Urban Freight Landscape
- 1.3 – The Diversity of Urban Freight Activities
- 1.4 – Urban Logistical Challenges
Section 2. Drivers of urban freight demand
Lead: Genevieve Giuliano
Transportation and land use dynamics such as economic activities, density, and forms of consumption as drivers of urban freight demand. Major trends in global manufacturing and distribution, such as the emergence of e-commerce and shifting supply chain networks.
- 2.1 – Cities as Nodes on the Global Trade Network. Dr. Genevieve Giuliano
- 2.2. – Local Demand and Supply
- 2.3 – The Rise of E-commerce and Time-Sensitive Deliveries
- 2.4 – Future of Globalization
- 2.5 – Supply Chains, Disruptions and Resilience
Section 3. Urban freight distribution
Lead: Jean-Paul Rodrigue
How global supply chains are established and how they operate, from the global to the local. The components related to urban freight transportation such as modes and terminals. The provision of urban freight transport services and the main distribution channels used. The setting of e-commerce-derived forms of urban distribution such as home deliveries.
- 3.1 – Urban Freight Transportation Modes and Terminals
- 3.2 – Urban Freight Distribution Channels
- 3.3 – E-commerce and City Logistics
- 3.4 – Autonomous Vehicles for Urban Deliveries
- 3.5 Third-Party Logistics Services Providers