Geographic Intelligence for Bridging Transportation Planning and Environmental Needs

The planning of linear transportation infrastructures, which for decades has followed the geometric design premises of highways and railways mainly in greenfield projects, currently faces significant challenges. These challenges include the need for a strong inclusion of socio-environmental perspectives, as well as a continuous analysis of the logistical and economic feasibility of the project considering the existence of an already operating transportation system. In this sense, this presentation will argue for the need to modernize transportation planning and promote ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) principles in current and future projects. Results of research projects on the topic will be presented, focusing on Transport Ecology, Geographic Modeling of Corridors of Technical, Economic, and Environmental Feasibility, geographical simulations of routes and micro-logistic basins based on changes in freight costs resulting from new highways and railways, and predictive models of impacts on landscapes and distant indigenous populations.

Dr. Rodrigo A. A. Nóbrega holds a degree in Cartographic Engineering from UNESP (1996), and a Master’s and PhD in Transportation Engineering specializing in Remote Sensing and GIS from the Polytechnic School of USP (2007) in Brazil. He completed his Postdoctoral studies at the Geosystems Research Institute - Mississippi State University (2010). With 28 years of experience in GIS, Dr. Nobrega's research focuses on geographic intelligence for transportation planning. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Cartography, Institute of Geosciences at Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG).