Transport and environment interactions: the Italian framework

With road traffic in Europe forecast to increase, strategies are needed to keep transportation sector growth within the bounds imposed by a sustainable development. Research is contributing through a large number of projects dealing with transport-environment interactions. This paper reviews international research activities in this field, focusing on technological innovations, air and noise pollution prediction models, and existing tools for socioeconomic evaluation of traffic impacts on the environment. In particular, research projects of the Second Special Project on Transport (PFT2) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) are outlined.