The Use of Automated Planning For The Strategic Management of Transport Systems In Developing Countries

This abridged paper provides an overview of an alternative way of approaching strategic transport planning utilizing pervasive crowd sourced data within an automated methodology citing the Rapidex model as an example. The presented model addresses road conditions due to the reason of data availability by TomTom and Google. Additional data is not as universally available yet. The approach specifically prioritizes speed over detail which meets the functional requirements in data-poor regions which need rapid high-level input to their preliminary planning. The paper begins with an exploration of the issue of ‘data poverty’ with an examination of the limitations it causes on affected regions as well as global implications because of environmental impact. Then, an overview is provided of the concept of ‘automated transport planning’ as a potential methodological solution to the noted issues which is somewhat analogous to the broader approach of automated planning in AI (Ghallab et al., 2004). Finally, future work and concluding remarks are provided to the reader