Multimodal and Intermodal Transportation Systems in the AI Era

Dear Colleagues,

As an inherently complex system, transportation today becomes even more complicated not only because of its intermodal and multimodal components, passenger and freight connections, and supply and demand balances but also because of the compounding effects of digital twins on physical infrastructure, the social impact of technology implementations, and the interruptive effects of emerging service models.

This Special Issue invites original research and reviews that use systems-based thinking, modelling, and multidisciplinary methods to reflect the current, high-impact, and broad reach issues in transportation. We welcome contributions on topics including, but not limited to, the following:  

• Intermodal and multimodal transportation planning, operation, and management;
• AV and its applications/impact on travel, traffic, auto ownership, long-term infrastructure planning and constructions, land use and urban forms;
• Advanced aviation mobility and its interaction with surface transportation and community acceptance;
• Safety and systematic, causal relationship analyses for all modes and comprehensive evaluation of solutions;
• Conflicting and complementary relationships between passenger and freight transportation services and best practices.

Papers that combine quantitative modelling, such as systems dynamics, agent-based models, and MBSE, with field experiments, case studies, or real-world deployment results are especially encouraged. The goal is to advance knowledge and practical solutions that promote systematic improvement to transportation efficiency, safety, and sustainability.

How this fits Systems: The journal Systems focuses on holistic, interdisciplinary analyses of engineered and socio-technical systems. Multimodal and intermodal transportation is inherently systemic—requiring integration of infrastructure, control modules, human actors, environmental conditions, and organizational processes. Contributions that demonstrate systems modelling, lifecycle perspectives, resilience thinking, or cross-domain integration will align strongly with the journal’s scope.

Prof. Dr. Rongfang (Rachel) Liu
Guest Editor

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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Systems is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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.

• multimodal transportation
• intermodal coordination
• automated transportation
• transportation safety and security
• supply chain management
• advanced aviation mobility