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Sustainable Transportation Systems Design and Management

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Transportation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 1610

Special Issue Editors

School of Mechanical Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China
Interests: intelligent maintenance for transportation equipment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
China Railway Group Limited, Beijing, China
Interests: transportation safety and security

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Guest Editor
Business School, Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu, China
Interests: Innovation and management related to transportation companies

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Guest Editor
School of Mechanical Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, China
Interests: transportation safety and security

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to the Special Issue: Sustainable Transportation Development, Innovation and Management. Sustainable transportations play a crucial role in addressing global challenges such as climate change, resource scarcity, and urbanization, aimed at enhancing energy utilization efficiency, and minimizing environmental impacts, while enhancing travel experiences and promoting sustainable socio-economic development. Sustainable transportations emphasize the combination of intelligent technology, green energy, and efficient management methods to optimize transportation resource allocation, improve system performance, and promote the popularization of eco-friendly transportation modes. This Special Issue will focus on the latest research and innovative practices in sustainable transportations, exploring how to promote the development of sustainable transportation through interdisciplinary methods (including case studies, empirical research, etc.), and analyzing their implications for policymaking and future research. 

This Special Issue aims to showcase the latest research and innovation in sustainable transportation development, inspiring more scholars who are interested in and willing to contribute to this field. We are interested in works related to theoretical, algorithmic, metric, and dataset advances, as well as new applications. This Special Issue will provide a timely collection of highly novel and original ideas for the broader communities, e.g., transportation operation management, equipment health management, transportation safety and security, and empirical studies on the sustainable development of transportation companies. 

  1. Transportation Operation Management
  • Road network saturation and transportation state identification
  • AI-based transportation congestion prediction and diversion technology
  • Intelligent passenger flow monitoring system
  1. Intelligent Maintenance for Transportations
  • Performance optimization design of critical components or systems
  • Health monitoring and fault diagnosis of critical components
  • Prognostics and health management technologies
  1. Transportation Safety and Security
  • Safety risk assessment and optimization design
  • Transportation accident detection and emergency management
  • Intelligent lifecycle safety operation and maintenance technologies
  1. Empirical Studies on Sustainable Development
  • Innovation management of transportation companies
  • Digitalization transformation system of companies
  • Optimization of digital process of companies

 We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Xin Zhang
Dr. Yuanke Wu
Dr. Yi Jin
Dr. Yulin Jin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainable transportation development
  • operation management
  • intelligent maintenance
  • safety and security
  • energy conservation
  • system design
  • digital transformation
  • digital innovation

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 3366 KiB  
Article
Transport System Digitalization in the Mining Industry
by Marek Ondov, Janka Saderova, Andrea Sofrankova, Lukas Horizral and Peter Kacmary
Sustainability 2025, 17(13), 6038; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17136038 - 1 Jul 2025
Viewed by 357
Abstract
The mining industry faces increasing pressure to improve efficiency, reduce operational costs, and adapt to modern technological trends. Central to these challenges is digitalization. This paper compares the level of digitalization in the mining industry internationally and in Slovakia, raising the question of [...] Read more.
The mining industry faces increasing pressure to improve efficiency, reduce operational costs, and adapt to modern technological trends. Central to these challenges is digitalization. This paper compares the level of digitalization in the mining industry internationally and in Slovakia, raising the question of the feasibility of implementing digitalization tools in small-scale Slovak mining operations. The presented case study demonstrates the creation of a simulation model and 3D animation for the development of small and medium-sized open pit mines, using Tecnomatix Plant Simulation software version 2302.0004, empirical data collection, and programming with SimTalk 2.0. Internationally, digitalization through modeling and simulation is already at a much higher level, with advanced solutions such as digital twins. In contrast, digitalization in Slovak mining operations is limited to basic simulation approaches, with only a few documented attempts, highlighting substantial opportunities for further development. The simulation model developed in this study enables more efficient planning and management of logistics and transportation processes, with potential benefits for operational improvements, safety, and sustainability. Adopting digitalization, even in small-scale operations, can drive the future development of the Slovak mining industry. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Transportation Systems Design and Management)
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15 pages, 247 KiB  
Article
Industry Concentration and Digital Process Innovation: Evidence from Chinese Rail Transit Firms
by Yi Jin and Bo Liu
Sustainability 2025, 17(9), 4116; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17094116 - 2 May 2025
Viewed by 482
Abstract
Market competition and industrial environment have a significant impact on firms’ innovation behavior. Hence, this study aims to uncover the connection between industry concentration and digital process innovation in Chinese rail transit firms. Grounded in innovation diffusion theory, we explore the effects of [...] Read more.
Market competition and industrial environment have a significant impact on firms’ innovation behavior. Hence, this study aims to uncover the connection between industry concentration and digital process innovation in Chinese rail transit firms. Grounded in innovation diffusion theory, we explore the effects of industry concentration on digital process innovation and analyze the contingent factors of firm size and environmental support on the above effects. Through empirical analyses of data from Chinese rail transit firms, this study reveals that industry concentration inhibits digital process innovation. Firm size strengthens the negative impacts of industry concentration, while environmental support weakens the main effect. Our findings offer a complementary framework for industry organization activities and practical implications for digital process innovation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Transportation Systems Design and Management)
35 pages, 1140 KiB  
Article
Drivers’ Welfare and Pollutant Emission Induced by Ride-Hailing Platforms’ Pricing Strategies
by Jiayang Li, Guoyin Zhang and Debing Ni
Sustainability 2025, 17(9), 3896; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17093896 - 25 Apr 2025
Viewed by 464
Abstract
We build two multiple-stage game-theoretical models to capture how a ride-hailing platform’s ex-ante and ex-post pricing strategies induce show-up drivers’ strategic inter-area relocations. In both models, the platform operates its ride-hailing service in a two-area city, where the realizations of ride-hailing demand and [...] Read more.
We build two multiple-stage game-theoretical models to capture how a ride-hailing platform’s ex-ante and ex-post pricing strategies induce show-up drivers’ strategic inter-area relocations. In both models, the platform operates its ride-hailing service in a two-area city, where the realizations of ride-hailing demand and supply are spatially asynchronous. Based on the subgame perfect equilibria, we show that show-up drivers’ relocation equilibria induced by the platform’s pricing strategy are not unique but that the equilibrium multiplicity does not affect the platform’s profit. Further, we find that the commission rate has non-monotonic discontinuous impacts on the platform’s profitability, drivers’ welfare, and pollutant emission under both pricing strategies. The continuous impact of an increase in the commission rate leads to a win–loss outcome for the platform and drivers without any effect on the environment, while the jumps result in a loss–win–win outcome for the platform, drivers, and the environment. We finally reveal that, relative to the ex-ante pricing strategy, the ex-post pricing strategy always benefits the platform at the cost of environmental pollution and enhances (reduces) drivers’ welfare when the relocation cost is sufficiently low (high). Managerial insights are also discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Transportation Systems Design and Management)
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