Air transport and economic growth: a review of the impact mechanism and causal relationships

ABSTRACT

The impacts of air transport on the economy arise both directly, via activity in the aviation sector; and indirectly, via increased spending and wider economic benefits associated with improved access to resources, markets, technology and economic mass. Economic activity, in turn, supports and generates demand for air transport. Despite its potential importance, the reciprocal nature of the causal relationship between air transport and economic performance has remained somewhat understudied. This paper provides a synthesis review of the channels the aviation sector interacts with regional economy. The review focuses on quantitative studies that contribute to the state-of-the-art understandings of the causality. We find that the reciprocal causal relationship is more likely to prevail in less developed economies. For more developed economies, only one direction of the causality is recognised, which runs from air transport to economic growth. Especially substantial is the effect of airline enplanement on service-related employment. The reverse direction of the relationship is, however, not as significant as believed in a causal sense within the developed world. Therefore, cautions need to be taken when applying income elasticities (such as the elasticity of air passenger demand with respect to GDP) in air travel demand forecasting, which implicitly assumes that economic growth causally leads to air traffic increment. Based on the fundamental links between air transport and economic growth, some typical imperfections and inefficiencies in aviation markets are discussed and promising avenues for future research are proposed.     

预制拼装桥墩体系及其抗震性能研究进展

预制拼装桥墩体系(Pre-fabricated Concrete PierSystem, PCP)抗震性能是影响其推广、应用的关键。为加快PCP在中、高烈度等复杂恶劣工程环境中的设计、施工与建造，首先综述了PCP节点连接的接缝形式、连接构造类型及典型工程示例，指出了PCP常用3种接缝形式和6种连接构造力学性能的研究现状及其优缺点；其次，系统地梳理了PCP抗震性能的研究进展，分析了不同连接条件下PCP的抗震性能，明晰了现有PCP抗震性能研究的不足及未来研究方向；最后，详细地论述了PCP抗震性能提升方法的研究前沿，探究了耗能延性构造的设置、高性能材料的应用、新型装配式节点构造设计以及新型混合预制桥墩体系的提出等PCP抗震性能提升方法的优缺点和发展方向。结果表明：通过对装配式节点的合理设计以及薄弱区域的预处理，预制拼装桥墩体系的抗震性能能够达到“等同现浇”的设计原则。然而PCP在复杂恶劣工程环境中的推广应用仍面临以下关键问题：PCP既有节点连接方式、体系和改进措施的抗震性能研究成果亟需归纳；新型节点连接方式、新体系和新型改进措施亟待提出，相关抗震性能有待验证；既有和新型PCP抗震性能的理论分析及抗震设计方法尚需完善；适用于复杂恶劣环境的预制拼装桥墩设计、施工标准亟需制定。     

感应充电路面技术研究现状与展望

以感应充电技术(Inductive Power Transfer,IPT)为主要特征的充电路面(Electrified Road,e-Road)近年来发展迅速，其可为行进中的电动汽车进行动态无线充电，有效解决电动汽车充电时间过长、续航里程不足等问题，是支撑未来公路交通电气化发展的重要储备技术。详细介绍了IPT系统的工作原理和性能特点，并总结了已有e-Road试验段的充电性能参数和技术就绪度水平。在此基础上，进一步从基础设施角度剖析了e-Road目前存在的主要工程问题及相关研究进展，内容包括：①深入分析了IPT系统工作时因高频磁场通过介电性路面材料所引起的电磁损耗对IPT系统充电效率的影响，并提出了可能的解决方法；②针对充电模块与普通沥青路面存在的力学兼容性问题，从结构受力原理、材料损伤特性等方面总结了e-Road复合结构产生力学损伤加剧效应的原因，并提出了耐久性优化措施；③针对e-Road环境可持续方面存在的不确定性，评估并对比了e-Road与传统道路的全生命周期环境效益，指出了e-Road环境性能研究对电动汽车全生命周期综合效益估算的重要性。此外，还从政策支持、安全性、价格因素等角度对e-Road进行了综合可行性评估，并对充电路面基础设施的未来发展进行了智能化展望，提出了e-Road与其他新型智能道路技术进行有机融合的可能途径。     

面向国产大型邮轮的虚拟设计评审方案研究

本文分析了国内大型邮轮三维设计模型的虚拟评审需求,基于Intergraph Smart 3D和SmartPlant Review软件,提出了国产大型邮轮虚拟设计评审的总体解决方案。该方案采用三维模型轻量化、模型虚拟评审以及大型邮轮设计-评审数据转换等关键技术,实现了面向大型邮轮设计的沉浸式三维模型全流程虚拟评审,并通过在国产大型邮轮设计模型上的应用测试,验证了该方案的可行性,可为提高大型邮轮设计生产效率、缩短建造周期以及降低生产成本等提供重要的技术支撑。     

面向智能车辆的现役道路设施行驶适应性研究综述

为了总结面向智能车辆的现役道路设施行驶适应性，即现役道路基础设施承载智能车辆行驶的适宜程度，阐述自主智能驾驶定义与驾驶自动化等级分类，在此基础上剖析不同等级间的人机功能差异，并分别从感知层、感知-决策层、决策-控制层探讨与道路设计要素相关联的人机功能差异，通过归纳总结智能车辆与道路几何要素、路面性能及其他道路要素(如道路标线)的相互作用机制研究，从道路工程角度及其他道路要素方面回顾该领域的研究现状，指出存在的问题和未来发展方向。研究结果表明：相比传统车辆，配置高等级自动驾驶系统的智能车辆对现役道路设施行驶适应性最高，主动安全系统次之，而驾驶辅助及有条件自动驾驶系统适应性不足。而目前研究主要问题包括：难以归纳、标定不同驾驶自动化等级间的人机功能差异及其对于道路设计参数的需求设计值；测试道路场景条件过于理想，考虑的驾驶自动化等级单一，试验规模和样本有限；道路几何、路面性能以及道路标志、标线等道路要素与智能车辆间的相互作用机制研究不足，缺乏与不同道路场景相匹配的智能车辆驾驶特征数据的获取手段。因此建议：重视并推动与道路设计要素相关联的关键人机功能差异指标信息共享；联合高保真且可交互的道路场景、高精度感知传感器物理模型、车辆动力学模型及微观交通流模型，利用测试场景自动化生成、极限工况场景搜寻与泛化等技术开展智能驾驶虚拟测试，突破现有研究的深度和广度；探索反映不同等级智能车辆的道路行驶适应性特征指标与评价标准，精准、有效地评估预测复杂道路场景及不利道路条件下的行驶适应性。     

Competition model of cruise home ports based on the cruise supply chain – based on China cruise market

This paper addresses issues of cruise home port competition based on the cruise supply chain. A pricing model of the cruise market is developed considering the competitive cooperation behaviors of the participants in the cruise supply chain. Furthermore, a model of cruise home port competition is developed to investigate the impacts of subsidy participants in the cruise supply chain on cruise home ports. The results indicate that subsidy policies change the market equilibrium, promote the upstream and downstream integration of cruise supply chain, and enhance cruise home port competitiveness. Subsidies to cruise line increase the payoffs of cruise supply chain and ports’ profit. Subsidies to travel agency decrease passenger costs and improve all ports’ profits. For the long-term development of cruise home port, the consequents can be used as policy suggestions.     

The built environment and travel behavior in urban China: A literature review

Interests in studying of the built environment impacts on travel behavior have proliferated from North America to other parts of the world including China. Until very recently, there has been very little research into travel behavior in China. However, during the last decade, there has been a fast growing interest in studying the built environment and travel behavior in Chinese cities, perhaps motivated by China’s unprecedented urbanization and rapid urban transport development. Case studies from China provide new insights into the impacts of built environment on travel behavior that can help to enrich existing scholarship. However, currently there is a generally poor understanding of the role played by Chinese research and how it has enriched the international literature. This paper aims to fill this gap by reviewing studies in and outside China by both Chinese and non-Chinese scholars. The focus is on the contribution of these studies to the international literature. We identify four areas of contribution: how the built environment has been developed and its implications for travel behavior; the importance of housing sources in defining residential built environment and explaining travel behavior; the unique Danwei (or work unit) perspective on jobs-housing relationships and commuting behavior; and the importance of neighborhood types in explaining travel behavior in Chinese cities. The findings from this review should be relevant for researchers interested in developing future studies that will further advance geographic knowledge of the built environment and travel behavior, specifically in China and with broader global contexts.     

Spatiotemporal traffic forecasting: review and proposed directions

This paper systematically reviews studies that forecast short-term traffic conditions using spatial dependence between links. We extract and synthesise 130 research papers, considering two perspectives: (1) methodological framework and (2) methods for capturing spatial information. Spatial information boosts the accuracy of prediction, particularly in congested traffic regimes and for longer horizons. Machine learning methods, which have attracted more attention in recent years, outperform the naïve statistical methods such as historical average and exponential smoothing. However, there is no guarantee of superiority when machine learning methods are compared with advanced statistical methods such as spatiotemporal autoregressive integrated moving average. As for the spatial dependency detection, a large gulf exists between the realistic spatial dependence of traffic links on a real network and the studied networks as follows: (1) studies capture spatial dependency of either adjacent or distant upstream and downstream links with the study link, (2) the spatially relevant links are selected either by prejudgment or by correlation-coefficient analysis, and (3) studies develop forecasting methods in a corridor test sample, where all links are connected sequentially together, assume a similarity between the behaviour of both parallel and adjacent links, and overlook the competitive nature of traffic links.