Toward Sustainable Urban Mobility: A Multidimensional Ontology-Based Framework for Assessment and Consensus Decision-Making Using DS-AHP

Abstract

Urban mobility is a critical aspect of sustainable urban development, with significant environmental, social, and economic implications. Assessing the sustainability of urban mobility systems in order to create more carbon neutral, liveable, healthier, and sustainable cities and neighborhoods for the future requires a multidimensional approach that integrates diverse factors. However, the lack of a unified assessment framework poses challenges in comparing and evaluating different urban mobility projects. This article proposes an ontology for assessing the sustainability of urban mobility systems. This ontology is based on a multidimensional approach that integrates knowledge from experts in transportation engineering, urban planning, environmental science, and social sciences to incorporate existing sustainability indicators and frameworks, as well as domain-specific knowledge. A consensus approach based on Dempster–Shäfer (DS) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methods is proposed to account for uncertainties and to allow for the consideration of preferences and ill judgment. Through a case study in Romania, the authors demonstrated the applicability of the proposal to provide a comprehensive and flexible framework for assessing urban mobility sustainability. The proposed ontology provides a valuable tool for policymakers, urban planners, and transportation engineers to make informed decisions towards sustainable urban mobility, and the sensitivity analysis is carried out to demonstrate the robustness of the proposed framework. It has potential for iterative validation and feedback from domain experts, and can serve as a foundation for future research.